#yuru kill

[consumedshadow-mysticmc]

This game is interesting so far.

[fruiitgumi]

yuru and asa and "cleaning up"

just a breakdown of this scene and why i think the characters say these things! because i want to get into the habit of making actual analysis and typing my thoughts into words. lol

from ch 32 of yomi no tsugai, the twins both have bad dreams about a time they were faced with death; inflicted on themselves and onto other people

yuru: "i have to clean up after myself." he was abandoned by his parents and his primary mentor (his father). yuru lives by his father's words when it comes to survival after his first encounter with another person's bloodlust in ch 8. shortly after this encounter, his parents left him; yuru might think it was because of his inability to protect himself that they left. he feels the need to only rely on himself and care for asa in the cage and he eventually grows familiar with the feeling of bloodlust being aimed at him

asa: "i'm sorry for making you clean up after my mess." asa grew up in an environment where she could only watch from afar, being locked away in the cage since childhood (still not sure exactly why that was aside from the justification being to protect the village, but it'll probably be revealed later). she feels like a burden on everyone around her for being born as one of the twins of day and night and subjecting those close to her to constant chaos. in an earlier(?) chapter, asa already shows how much guilt she bears when she's told by yuru their parents might've been killed by ivan.

such a small line but it says a lot about both their upbringings..

(also unrelated but the panels of yuru and asa's hands trembling.. yuru's clenched tight, and there's no one to reassure him. the imagery of his hands in a fist reinforcing that he will eventually claim seal. asa's hand curled up but still open, reflecting how she now has the ability to break. jin and gab being there by her side, but yuru having only himself. alright that's enough)

[apprenticemages]

Summer 2023 - what I've been watching (non seasonal)

Just because I’m not watching anything seasonal (beyond my beloved Mix), that doesn’t mean I’m not watching anything.  So, I thought I’d run down what I have been watching just for fun. My First Girlfriend Is a Gal, Sword Art Online -FULLDIVE-, Laid Back Camp, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, and the Netflix One Piece. Hit the jump and let’s run ’em down! Continue…

[therealgenm]

transparent under the cut

reblog if you want nadeshiko to kill you with a billhook

[jjs-brainrot]

2024 is coming to an end, all my anime from the current season finished up and next season has yet to be begin. it's time for me to actually sit down and figure out what my top 10 anime were for this year!

God damn was this an amazing year of anime for me. Every season had multiple shows I was hardcore obsessing over with a surprising amount of them outright entering into my top 10 of all time. I'd say I'd be surprised if 2025 can match it, but a lot of the shows I was obsessing with are getting continuations next year so I might end up with back to back peak years.

10. Yuru Camp S3

The greatest propaganda camping has ever received is back again to try to convince you that you should totally buy some camping gear and drive out to the nearest camp ground. You will surely not regret both of these decisions!

Yuru Camp feels like it's the platonic ideal of the iyashikei genre. It has just the right mixture of beautiful scenery, slow and chill vibes, the right amount of goofy humor and some really delicious looking food to make you feeling rejuvenated (and a bit hungry) every episode.

Season 3 has been particularly notable as its the first season being handled by Eight Bit instead of C-Station. While I'd say it's still as strong as previous seasons, the environmental backgrounds definitely felt like a step back compared to the previous 2 seasons and movie. It wasn't bad enough that it put a damper on my enjoyment of the series but it was a noticeable downground. The rest of the animation was pretty solid though with some of the later episodes (7 and 8 in particular) being incredibly creative and fun.

It's Yuru Camp. You should watch Yuru Camp if you haven't already…. You will not regret any purchases you make after watching Yuru Camp…

9. Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf

The classic medieval fantasy/economic/romance/drama series has returned to once again lure unsuspecting otaku with the promise of a cute wolfgirl, only to lock the door behind them and reveal that they've been signed up for an econ 101 class.

It's an updated adaptation that's much more faithful to the light novels then the first anime was. Not too much to say until we get season 2 as it covered a lot of the arcs the first anime covered. The one exception being that it actually animated book 3 which the first anime skipped over in order to cover book 5 (or rather 90% of book 5… I'm still salty about that…)

Holo is still a complete charmer, Holo and Lawrence still have excellent chemistry together and the economic drama is still top tier.

8. Dungeon People

Dungeon Keeper Yuri or the other show from this year from a mangaka thinking long and hard about how a fantasy dungeon would actually work. Though Instead of looking at it as an ecosystem like Dungeon Meshi, it approaches the idea as a workplace with its own logistical and management issues that need to be addressed in order to function.

It's mostly a pretty chill series but it also doesn't shy away from exploring darker topics like how the dungeon management deals with sexual assault and murder amongst adventurers.

Both of the protags (Clay and Belle) are fairly morally grey characters with neither having any qualms about killing when the job calls for it. There's also some strong coworkers yuri going on between them as well.

Kinda got overshadowed by Dungeon Meshi, but it's another really interesting examination on the idea of fantasy dungeons with some light yuri elements on top.

7. 'Tis Time for "Torture", Princess

The princess will be pampered, cared for and provided more friendship then she's ever experienced in her life until she divulges state secrets of frivolous quality.

An extremely chill little comedy that manages to be both extremely funny and incredibly relaxing as the same time. The closest series I can think of to compare it to is Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (and maybe The Helpful Fox Senko-san to an extent). Just a nice series of skits about a character getting pampered.

Each of the "torturers" having the own niches (i.e. the titular Torture Tortura (yes that's her name) being a foodie, Krall being an animal lover, Youki and Inki basically playing around as the princess' best friend, etc) does a good job of making skits varied enough to never get stale.

Very good series to chill to after long day at work. Also has a season 2 on the way.

6. Dungeon Meshi

It's Dungeon Meshi, one of the best fantasy and foodie series to come out in decades.

In truth, the fact that I've been keeping up with and recommending this series for like 8 or 9 years now kinda does lower it a bit on my list since most of the novelty has faded over the years and most of the stronger moments of the series will be in the second season.

That being said, this adaptation has been fantastic so far with it easily being a contender for one of Studio Trigger's best works.

5. Mayonaka Punch

Desperate simp vampire girl wants to suck a cancelled youtuber girl('s blood) dry, the cancelled youtuber wants to reach 1 million subscribers. Win-win!

An absolutely hilarious comedy that also manages to pull out some pretty strong emotional guy punches when it feels like it and has an absolutely exquisite cast of girls who suck (pun intended).

Easily up there with Shirobako and Ya Boy Kongming as one of PA Works' best anime.

4. Shangri-La Frontier

A trash game loving birdman plays an actually good game for the first time in his life. Alternatively: LetMeSoloHer the anime.

One of the very few VRMMO anime that's… actually about the joy of playing an MMO? Honestly it feels weird to say but it feels like almost ever other anime that takes place in an MMO is either an isekai or a romance where the MMO aspect is just a forgettable backdrop. The only other series I can think of that did something similar to Shangri-La Frontier is Bofuri. So it's weirdly an untapped aspect of the genre.

Shangri-La Frontier really does nails every aspect of enjoying an MMO excellently though. The fun of first loading into a game and trying to figure out the basics, gushing about the game to one of your old gaming buddies and getting them interested in it, finding another old gaming buddy you didn't realize was also playing the same game as you, learning and mastering a raid with your friends, getting real into the lore of the game and even taking a break from your main game to play other games to recharge your love for the main one.

The entire cast is a wonderful collection of gamer cryptids with the main 3 protags being up there as one of my all time favorite trios as they're just as easily likely to help each other out when it counts as they are to stab each other in the backs for the laughs. They absolutely nail the "gaming buddies who've known each other for years" vibes.

It easily has the most stellar fight scenes this year with The multi-episode Weathermon fight alone absolutely deserving to top everyone of those "top x anime fight scenes" lists people put out there.

It's painful how under talked about this series seems to be for how good it is.

3. VTuber Legend

Lesbian VTuber gets drunk and loudly talks about how much she loves to fap to women. Proceeds to awaken a new fetish in every one of her coworkers (never the same one).

Hilarious, unhinged, gay af, probably the second kinkiest yuri this year and is the gold standard all future VTuber anime must be compared to. It gets it. It fully understood the level of unhinged insanity it needed to be to represent what watching VTubers is actually like and does so with flying colors.

Awayuki Kokorone is my oshi of all time. May she forever suffer the consequences of being a human lightning rod of fetishes by becoming a chew toy for every woman in her life.

Easily the one of the funniest comedies to come out this year and is well worth watching even if you have 0 interest in VTubers.

2. Gushing Over Magical Girls

Girl who really, really, really, REALLY loves magical girls gets black mailed into joining the evil organization that fights them. This turns into an unexpected positive for her as she finds out that she really, really, really, REALLY loves domming magical girls.

As wild as "the extremely smutty, borderline pornographic bdsm yuri magical girl show was one of the most compelling and interestingly written shows this year while also being the most hilarious" is to say… The extremely smutty, borderline pornographic bdsm yuri magical girl show was in fact one of the most compelling and interestingly written shows this year while also being the most hilarious.

It's easily one of the most kink positive anime series I've seen, and I think out of every anime from this year, this one might well have had the biggest impact on me. The general themes of self-accepting ones own perversions and kinks genuinely got me accepting and being way more open with my own and others'.

The bdsm magical girl show made me a better person which is a hell of a thing to say.

1. Girls Band Cry

RAISE YOUR MIDDLE FINGERS WITH ME! (or at least you pinkies as we sadly can't have the actual members of TogeToge flipping their audience off every live show…)

Hands down the best band anime yet, easily a rival to Studio Orange's work as one of the best 3DCG anime out there and without a doubt the best completely original anime released this year. It's writing was consistently strong from beginning to end with a few episodes outright being some of the best 20 minutes of anime this year (episode 8 and 11 in particular). The entire cast was super fun with Nina in particular being an incredibly interesting protagonist. And god the music is some of the best out of any band anime with Togenashi Togeari easily being up there in my top 3 bands of all times and I've basically not gone a single week without listening to every one of their songs on repeat.

Girls Band Cry might be the most near perfect anime in years and is easily the series I'd most recommend everyone pick up from this year (now that you can actually do so legally cause god damn was it a crime that this one wasn't picked up by streamers when it aired).

[all-blues]

Best anime recs?

Classic yuri anime that must be watched: Kannazuki no Miko, Strawberry Panic, Simoun, Revolutionary Girl Utena (serie + movie), Sasamaki Koto

Modern classic yuri: Boom Into You, Citrus, Asagao to Kase-san

Most recent ones that are on their way to become the newest yuri classics: I'm in Love with the Villainess, Whisper Me a Love Song

Magical girl genre: Sailor Moon, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru

Artistic and metaphorical ones: Yurikuma Arashi, Flip Flappers (both highly recommended)

I personally really like comedy yuri so my fav ones are: Yuru Yuri, Kiniro Mosaic and Yuyushiki. I also would add New Game! and Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san

The classics for the Girls and Guns genre: Canaan, Noir (El Cazador De La Bruja and Madlax to complete the trilogy), the most recent one is Lycoris Recoil, a less recent one is Akuma No Riddle

Original anime: Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight, Princess Principal, Izetta: The Last Witch, Kill la Kill

Idol anime: Love Live! (I'm an original love liver so my favs are LL and LLS only)

[moonpie2405]

Could Dr. Sakurazawa be a tsugai?

Welcome to my finally written down, months-old mad spiral of a theory! First things first, I'll admit that Dr. Sakurazawa has been seen having a shadow in a few instances:

However! Danji can cast a fake shadow if he focuses, and if tsugai wear clothes that are not part of their form, the clothes themselves can cast a shadow as well, like with the alien tsugai.

Let's start with the meal at the Kagemori mansion (sorry for the low quality image):

She sits right next to Sayuu-sama, which could mean nothing, that's just the way everyone is sitting (most important people of each side in the middle, with Yuru and the gang flanked by Kagemori family members on both sides), but it sure is interesting to think about, isn't it? Also, she does seem to reach out for her plate, but:

She's never shown removing her mask, which is odd. What did she even do, eat super fast and put the mask back on when she finished (again, odd. You'd think she'd want to wash her face before putting the mask back on)? Sneak bites underneath the mask (why would she even do that)? Or, secret third option, she didn't actually eat at all 🧐

Now, onto the time when Akio betrayed the Kagemoris. Akio sure asks a weird question when he has been captured, doesn't he:

Why does Dr. Sakurazawa get singled out like this? Does she have some special immunity as the family's shady doctor? But even if that were the case, if you know that there's a rat in the family, it's obvious to check every single person, even if it means that the family's shady doctor might get offended by the accusation. In the first place, I think Asa being killed during a hospital visit would have nullified any kind of special trust shown to Dr. Sakurazawa instantly. However, if she were to be a tsugai, this would be a totally different story, and she would be a reasonably exceptional case.

Finally, when Tanikaze's relic blows up (apologies for the. fucking ballsack):

Dr. Sakurazawa's tsugai (which she must have if she's a human, considering that Blacklist did background checks on her) are the only ones who don't show up to protect her. Weird, considering how tsugai will usually protect their masters with their own life if needed. Even if you say that maybe her tsugai are not combat oriented (weird again, wouldn't you want your shady family doctor to be well protected?), that did not stop Kawai the gardener's tsugai from fighting Akio tooth and nail until the very end. Also, when a relic is about to go off like a bomb, I'd say it is kind of an all hands on the deck type of situation. However, her tsugai don't show up at all, with Natsuki's tsugai Babamaru being the one to save her:

But Dr. Sakurazawa does something very interesting when Tanikaze's relic first shows up:

She grabs her mask (also, notice how the mask casts a shadow on her face but her hand does not?). What a weird instinct: instead of summoning her tsugai, or reaching for one of the plethora of Sharp, Stabby objects that should be in her office, her first reaction to a potentially hostile situation is to remove her mask. Unless. Unless she's the tsugai. Unless she's hiding something underneath that mask. Then her not removing the mask during the meal would also make sense.

Ok, that's it. That's all I have, thank you very much for making it to the end of this rant.

[airysthinkingbox]

pangifrags yuru onedjot to makeup for misding my wemmbu pride drabble today im sorry

"dude, you don't-" flame vaguely gestured to her own eyes.

pangi looked up, her eyes sparkling with a hint of nervousness. "oh, yeah! my, um.." she rubbed the back of her neck, "my other ones broke in an ambush.."

flame felt her chest heat up with anger, and maybe a little bit of something else. it pissed her off that someone had hurt, or maybe even killed, pangi while she wasn't there to help. but.. the way the sunlight's reflection looked in her diamond colored eyes...

"flame?" pangi tapped her shoulder gently. "you okay?"

the demon snapped out of her trance. "wh- no, im-" was she fine? with those stunning eyes of pangi's, it was hard to tell. "im fine," she reassured.

pangi tilted her head, expression skeptical- which flame could tell, as it was more obvious without her shades covering her eyes. "whatever you say bro.."

flame nodded, those she didn't look away like the other. she'd.. never seen pangi's eyes before, as she'd been almost overprotective of them so basically nobody could see. so, for pangi to be so... casual around her without her sunglasses- trusting her.... the warm feeling that settled in her chest grew to a fire.

"you're eyes are...." she was practically speechless. there was so much she wanted to say, say much she wanted to do about them.

pangi looked back at her, a bead of sweat sliding down from her forehead. "weird?" she finished.

flame shook her head, "of course not. they're just..." again, she paused. there was so much to say, but how could she put it into words? "pretty."

"wh-" pangi's cheeks flushed to a rosy red. "y- you- that's-" she turned away, covering her lower face with a hand. "that's.. kind of gay, bro..."

"and is it still gay if i kissed you right now?" flame asked, placing a hand on her hip. okay- a bit forward. but pangi often needed things bashed into her head to get it.

"wait- really-?" pangi asks, almost like she couldn't find it in herself to stop. "wanna- um- test that?"

flame laughs a breath and pulls her close, by the chin. she waits a second, finding pangi's consent in the way she pathetically blinked at her. she looks like she's constantly on the verge of tears. it's beautiful.

when their lips meet, in only for a quick second- basically a sigh against each other's lips. still, flame can taste pangi's coconut flavored chapstick. she pulls away before she can become obsessed with it.

pangi's pure, uncovered eyes blink open. "that was-" she stops, leaning into flame's hand, still on her face.

"mhm.." she hums in response. they don't need words. it's not anything that needs to be said. they both know how they feel right now. all they needed was to be.

[call-me-rucy]

So I went and reread all YnT available chapters a couple of days ago (36 of them) and I thought I'd write about a plot point that is making me have many questions, in case someone had any theories.

[Spoilers ahead]

Whatever is going on with Granny Yamaha and the twins 400 years ago? This has me: so confused.

It is not clear yet who was the master of Sayuu-sama 400 years ago. Not is it clear to me how the contract with that person got broken.

There are four options:

The master got killed

They got broken

They got sealed

They resolved the contract peacefully

Now the first two would mean Sayuu-sama were an stray. That only seems to mean that they get bound to their location, which we can't prove they weren't, because they didn't move. In contrast, Mountain God moved when in relic form. But this doesn't explain why Dera's necklace is a thing.

If they were sealed, that would explain the need of an extra step to make a contract with them. The extra step is Dera's necklace. How does it work? It is not part of Sayuu's relic, because it remains even after contracting with them, but it has to be part of them, because Yuru's blood went on it to make the contract. So maybe that what seal does? It makes it so a key is needed to contract with the tsugai?

But this doesn't explain how Ken freed Tenagaashinaga then if a key was needed after they were sealed (because they were sealed presummably by the seal twin 1200 years ago)??? Or just do the Tadera have all the keys for all the tsugai????

If they resolved the contract peacefully, they said they would fly back to the village. And this again doesn't explain Dera's necklace. And it would have been after the twin that didn't die died, theoretically, becaus Sayuu-sama is used to keep Seal and Break in check. And I'm still not convinced they died.

Because the ward of Higashimura made by Granny Yamaha looks an awful lot like seal!! And "she's so old she doesnt even remember her age". It would make sense for her to be the seal twin, and the break twin would be the one that died ages ago without reviving. I take it she could "seal" herself alive. But. But. Then this doesn't explain why her eyes are normal.

And even if she isn't. She does the ward. She has to have some tsugai. What are they?!?!??

ARAKAWA-SENSEI, I NEED ANSWERS

[semi-imaginary-place]

ffxiv 6.0 siberia 2

Yeah yeah for those we have lost for those we can still save or whatnot. This is noraxia erasure also the devs are cowards and havent killed anyone since 3.5. y'shtola should have died in rhalgar's reach make zenos an actual threat. And g'raha in shadowbringers.

wonder what cid is up too.

if we're so concerned about appius why not go check in with the tappers while looking for that carburetor.

lol the devs wrote themselves into a hole making garleans tall this means they can't use the normal midlander models or well they do and we just do happen to meet a lot of very short garleans.

they retconned the roaders into motorcycles. those were totally human eperiments in sb like there was this whole thing about zenos transfiguring humans in aether experiments and horribly mutating them. we had that entire lv69 dungeon about this. it comes up again in shb?ew? when gaius and estinien infiltrate garlemald and have to fight some of the humans fused into cyborg mechs.

im sick and tired of these follow quests so annoying and easy to fail i miss the old arr days where you just had to go to a location. so nerva died offscreen in the aftermath give my 13 volume galvus family drama. boring i wanted to see it. also what happened to volusus dad? narrative forgoy about him. the dad is the guy with the key who was running a slave labor operation. so the dad is where the mom was all the way on the other side of the map

fun fact jullus in jp might be yuri. yuris yurus something like that. at least from how it's pronounced in japanese/ and yuri is the archtypical name for russians in japanese media.

ah the infamous several cutscenes will play. wol ia gonna develop some pavlovian stress response to dinners. every time one happens and things seem to be going too well it's the calm before the storm before things go horribly wrong. every garlean is back to beign tempered and we got kidnapped. that damn aulus. all this for zenos' dinner date smh. suprised there's servants left to cook because zenos aint doing that. im not sure zenos knows how to like take care of himself does he know how laundry works? ...what have they done with varis' corpse. i do sometimes feel bad for varis like yeah he was a brutal dictator and imperialist but he had to put up with solus and zenos as family. hmm but i thought the radios acted as anti tempering why would they have a primal's voice? or is this saying that everyone is already tempered it's but it's the light style tempering that like hydaelyn does so zenos' primal couldn't move in. I still don't get this. most people got tempered because they heard the roar of the primal zenos+fandaniel made from varis' corpse. but the radio broadcasting primal varis' voice also protected the rest from losing their minds.

zenos died and he learned absolutely nothing, he's still projecting hard onto wol-kun. homoerotic obsession if it could also be straight. ok that's really gay also no way anyone would believe zenos is the player characer, zenos lacks the social skills to pull it off. im ready for the worst acting ever seen he might not even bother. zenos should have stuck the pc in his body. it's all a game to them and the game is all there is to live for. given all the clues the radios should enhance anima tempering: playing varis' voice, looping the nationalism song, since believing in the glory of the garlean empire is what powers anima. huh how like fascism to try and replace religion with veneration of the State. So why did the radios then stop the first round of tempering?

what am i even suppose to be doing here??? the path is blocked with red dots and a blue barrier i can't go to camp broken glass. I TALKED TO THE DUDE THE GAME WOULDN'T GIVE ME THE DIALOGUE OPTION

well this is very nightmare dreamscape-esque

i told you so. lol zenos lasted 1 second with the scions. see this is why i was pushing for taking out the telephoroi over helping every last garlean. so they summon anima to summon zodiark??

so relieved my game didn't crash during the cutscene. game crashed 5 times during the arr banquet. if i had to do that segment again i would have cried. that still took me 5? attemps on very easy without any crashes.

fandaniel deserves to be killed with a cutscene gun. also we didn't prepare some auracite?

and of course it's on the last day that all the crashes happen. ugg was in the middle of the dungeon and hadn't even died yet. i nudged the power cable and the game flipped. guess i won't finish the dungeon until next year.

garlemald section is one of my favorite in the game so far. I really like this. there's some actually good writing here. it also paints garleans as nationally having this massive inferiority complex. They're out there making pretty much the rest of the world miserable, have invaded and occupied like half the world and made everyone else either slaves or second, third, etc. class not even citizens. And yet garleans feel like they are the oppressed persecuted minority when then are the oppressors. reminds me of is rael if it ever takes over the world. and yet they're people too with families and dreams, they get cold and hungry too. Personally my choice would have been helping them as a secondary objective. Resources from manpower to fuel and food are limited and would have been better used stopping Anima, which the main root of the garlean people's problem. delaying in stopping the cause of all this only makes the garlean's problems worse. dps mentality damage is mitigation. my other favorite sections would be the gyr abania sections especially the second one, the lead up to the Vault and travering Dravania, and honestly the shroud/little al mhigo section of arr. All these are heavy in worldbuilding and politics which is what I like.

I went and looked up the radio thing. so garleans got lucky and just happened to accidentally make radios out of the specific ore that works like the warding scales. so they were hearing varis' voice because that was Anima's roar translated through the radios into a non-tempering audio. Most people heard Anima's roar unfiltered and got tempered.

[fruiitgumi]

the power of seal (ch 39 spoilers)

in ch 39, it's revealed that the twin with seal was the one who did not revive. the twin wouldve had the option of either refusing seal and dying, or accepting it and living (based off asa's experience with break)-- except that there are other people who have the power of seal despite not being the twins of day and night: akio's mother and potentially yuru's mother.

i doubt that arakawa would put in a detail like this with the only explanation being "it just happens". there's probably something happening with the seal daemon that we don't know about yet. much to think about

all that being said, i wonder what will happen in regards to yuru and claiming seal. him kicking the bucket is unlikely. i honestly do see him claiming seal bc of how it was mentioned earlier that the divine left and right were the natural enemies of seal and break respectively. the surface was scratched with asa and right when they got eaten by yin-yang, but i wonder how it would affect yuru if he were to claim seal, with him also being the daemon wielder of the divine left and right.

(edit 3/23/25); how will yuru claim seal? specifically; how will he die? (will he need to die?) a lot of possibilities to entertain. i'll need to reread a lot to even start to theorize what would make the most sense but i feel like he might be killed for his inability to sense someone's bloodlust. it's been a recurring theme with asuma's daemon and hana. this paired with how fma went, specifically the scene where ed was impaled with a beam: it was because of his resolve to not kill that he was almost killed by kimblee; ed had the opportunity to, but instead went to disarm kimblee by removing the philosopher stone from his posession and slashing his transmutation circles, but he didn't consider that kimblee had another stone. ynt is the only other work i've read from arakawa so i dont know how often she reuses things from past series but it's interesting to think about

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2024: A Wizard is never late

Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku (Train to the End of the World)

If you want a reason for why this post is woefully late, it’s this show: since we’re going in ascending order of quality here, it must come first, yet I have a hard time saying anything about it. I suppose I can start with the most obvious problem: I will probably watch your original anime, but I do that to get away from light novel levels of insufferable dialogue. Yet this one definitely goes with the NisioisiN school of writing, which is to say, talk a lot first, then figure out a point at your convenience. This definitely doesn’t endear the show to me and makes it mildly annoying right from the start, but it could still be salvageable - but then Shuumatsu Train just turns out to be not particularly good at any of its selling points. For a weird show it’s not weird enough. For a comedy it’s not funny enough. For a character drama the characters are too superficial. For a profound allegory, it's much too vague. And even though the parts are hardly stellar, the result somehow still ends up as less than the sum of them. It‘s not a total write-off since at least there is some ambition here, but I really can’t say that being more meaningful than not at all is enough of a payoff for something that is mostly just basic attempts at wacky humor presented in an annoying fashion. 4/10

Yuru Camp S3

So, speaking of ambition. My last contact with Yuru Camp was me getting very mad at S2‘s incessant products and services shilling. Admittedly S3 turns this down to an acceptable level, but that only makes the deeper issue more apparent: Yuru Camp is and has always been astonishingly vapid, and three seasons and a movie in all the vibes in the world can no longer make up for it. I won’t even complain that the show is no longer about camping in any meaningful capacity (since I never cared and at least the local-tourism-and-food lane we‘re in now doesn’t require purchase of specialized gear), but godammit if personality-free blobs looking at small footbridges for three episodes didn’t kill my enthusiasm for any of this mush. It‘s still broadly inoffensive, but at this point I feel like I’ve thoroughly exhausted anything this show is ever willing to offer. And Yama no Susume shows that you can have all the theoretical positives of a Yuru Camp with compelling enough characters, so there’s really no excuse. 5/10

Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai (Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night)

I don’t know where this recent trend of cute but reasonably serious girl band anime came from (I would like to think MyGO, but more likely it‘s Bocchi the Rock + the most blatantly obvious and viable way to improve on Bocchi). But here is Jellyfish and uh… it certainly makes an attempt. The first impression is very positive, since Doga Kobo provides pleasant visuals (per usual), but it quickly becomes apparent that it’s the writing that is really holding this one back. It’s not even bad ideas or a lack of ideas, since the concepts this show wants to tackle are generally quite good. But pretty much every execution on those plot ideas is botched in some way, be it by resolving them in a stupidly simple way (impostor syndrome? just do your best!) or by just having a character read out their character arc really dramatically. A bunch of plot points don't even make sense when you look at them in context of the ostensibly real world this show takes place in, and the ending is a massive nothingburger. It's all stuff that's barely passable when something like Love Live does it, but in something that aims higher it seems like a first draft at best and more likely just extremely amateurish. One can only wonder if you gave such a concept to a seasoned veteran like Jukki Hanada... 6/10

Tonari no Youkai-san

Tonari no Youkai-san started out as a rather simple show that I really liked: a mostly but not exclusively lighthearted depiction of a world where Youkai are real and the weird situations that can create, with likeable characters carrying it along. But then it became apparent that what it really wants to do is back-to-back KEY-style sadpiano scenarios. While those aren't bad in moderate amounts, the fact that every scenario now had to be about some heartbreaking backstory no matter what quickly became rather tiring. And then, if it wasn't apparent enough that this show was writing itself into the weeds, it capped the season off with a completely bizarre sci-fi multiverse action arc where everyone dies (very sad!) but then comes back alive because power of friendship beats entropy or something. Well, at least I prefer laughing at this nonsense to being annoyed at contrived tearjerkers, I suppose. I wouldn't call it quality though. 6/10

Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon)

When the Dungeon Meshi started, I just didn't get it. The hyperbole around this show (mostly coming from manga fans, I think) was clearly not befitting a very mediocre gimmick anime where even the gimmick had been done better elsewhere multiple times. I do have to admit that as it went on, I could start to see where people were coming from: Once the cooking dies down a bit, the characters start to develop a bit and it finds its pace, Dungeon Meshi's "default mode" is an entertaining adventure anime with some nice characters, decent humor and engaging action. So far so good. However, I'll still call the show merely above average because it's in its default mode less often than you'd think. Every time I started to like something, Dungeon Meshi immediately had to head off in some random other direction that I don't care for: The cooking I did not care for in the beginning becomes vestigial but never stops taking up airtime nonetheless. The nerdy exposition about dungeon mechanics should not merit more than a footnote in a splatbook, but never stops taking up a lot of airtime nonetheless (it's also a painful reminder of the "worldbuilding over narrative" nonsense that I hate, but Dungeon Meshi isn't the worst offender here so I'll let it slide). The show expects me to care about other, far less interesting parties after I just barely mustered up enough enthusiasm to see Chilchuck as more than a spare Marcille when Marcille can't play the tsukkomi herself. Falin turns into a tragic zombie chicken. They adopt an annoying cat. It goes on and on and I'm not thrilled. I will admit though that I will likely still watch the sequel, mostly because Trigger really does a fantastic job with this adaptation on all levels, which at the very least manages to keep it watchable even in the doldrums. I just wish the source material was more consistent. 6/10

Kaiju No. 8

Every season there's some random anime that isn't particularly great, but still competent enough to merit a watch. It's usually some light comedy like Torture Princess, but every once in a while it's something else. This season it's Isekai QC, but in spring it was something even less likely: Kaiju #8, a Jump-brand premium shounen. Yeah, that's a surprise. It just doesn't do anything particularly wrong, apart from the genre staples that it must do wrong: The pacing is bad, but just regular bad. The tone is all over the place, but just regular all over the place. The protagonist isn't as good as he first seems, but not as bad as he could be either. It starts out as "less miserable Attack on Titan where people shoot at huge monsters with guns at shounen powerlevel efficiency", which is extremely awkward, but eventually it settles into a more standard "hit bad guy with sick special attacks" groove, which isn't exactly exciting but at least clearly something the show wants to be. In short, nothing special but the bullshit does not exceed the maximum level I will tolerate as the price of entry to epic dudes epically fighting in an epic fashion. There always is a point with these where you have to ruthlessly cut your losses, but it did not reach it in its first season when the average genremate reaches it within the first episode. That's... something. 6/10

Nijiyon S2

I wasn't even going to write about this because what is there to say about Nijiyon, except that Nijiyon is that rare mini spinoff that actually gets better and starts to outshine the main show at points. Half the time. The other half is still very basic and very arbitrary 4koma hijinks, but an improvement is an improvement. 6/10

Bartender: Glass of God

Why did they make a second Bartender anime in 2024? I can't answer this conclusively but I will say that if Suntory didn't pay for at least half of this production, they got something for free. With that out of the way, the most interesting thing I can say about Bartender is how it compares to Gin & Sonic '06. The old one was certainly ambitious, but in a rather obvious way: Treating the Bartender mystique as somthing close to supernatural and presenting it in a very abstract and stagey way. This is great when it works, but just as often merely comes off as extremely pretentious. The new one... just doesn't do any of that. It's a very straightforward, simple story with actual characters and stuff. It's workable enough with some stronger and some weaker episodes, and even though it does not even attempt to reach the highs of the old one, it doesn't sniff its own farts and does its best to avoid the old man machismo stank that faintly polluted the first adaptation. So I will actually call it better in some ways, maybe even on average, but it still can't compete with a show that had a better reason to exist than to get you excited for Yamazaki whiskey. 6/10

Euphonium S3

I've had my ups and downs with Yoof, and I will say that while some nags remain, I am satisfied with how it managed to (hopefully) wrap up. In fact, S3 might be the best the show has ever been. We were never going to get the cartoonish and quite frankly more entertaining presentation of S1 back, but for what it's worth, S3 takes the overcooked presentation and histrionic character writing of S2 and brings them down to a palatable level, and that makes it at least worth thinking about. Another big point in its favor is that it's now finally truly the Kumiko show, and not just the Kumiko stumbles into other people's drama show. Cast additions like Kanade and Mayu are prety great as well so yeah, I had a good time. Really my biggest complaint is that S3 might actually be a little too good at character drama, because at one point it seemed it was on the verge of starting to question a few of its core assumptions. I never expected it to have doubts over whether letting your school club control your entire existence is in fact a good thing, but ideas like Reina actually being as insane as she comes across and that Taki actually being as terrible as a teacher as he comes across seemed extremely promising. But nah, of course Kumiko just had to be honest with herself, that solved all the problems and then the show just coasted to the most predictable ending imaginable. Euphonium always seemed like it could be way better with a bit more risk-taking, but this was a particularly disappointing moment for the show to be itself. Anyway, if you just expect Euphoinum you're getting the good Euphonium here. 7/10

Girls Band Cry

So, about that "Hanada writing Jellyfish" quip I made earlier? What if that actually happened, in the same season no less? Yeah, these two shows are shockingly similar but unlike Jellyfsh, Girls Band Cry does things right... for the most part. You need to get used to the somewhat janky CG animation, but you're getting some great expressiveness in the deal so that's no problem. You'll also have to put up with Hanada's trademark yuribaiting, a pretty weak ending (as if these two shows didn't already copy each other's homework enough) and music that is much too obvously coming from the Vocaloid camp for my liking. Apart from that, GBC is very good. Not quite as good as MyGO (which has even better character dynamics and I still can't get past how shockingly high its quality is for a franchise anime), but it's really close. So close in fact that I don't even feel like pointing out in detail why GBC is good, because it really is MyGO again: Very flawed yet likeable girls try to get their mental in order while swinging between goofy and depressed and occasionally making music. It's not complicated, but when the character writing delivers (i.e., by seasoned pros like Yuniko Ayana or Jukki Hanada), it just works. If this is a trend now, I'll gladly take it. 8/10

[crehador]

brother crab's spring 2025 first impressions: batch 5

stacked season for cgdct enjoyers let's goooooo

zatsu tabi: i was all excited that this was like. about a working adult! instead of high schoolers! manga artist going on travels, hell yeah! but right from the start i was like hm yeah she's basically indistinguishable from a high school student and then she was like "i'm 18" so that explains it lmao anyway. still fairly cute and i think anyone who enjoys watching travel vlogs will enjoy this

mono: i say "it's not yuru camp but it'll do in a pinch" about a lot of cute girls doing cute things BUT THIS ONE. FINALLY. it's still not yuru camp but it is by the same creator so! it certainly captures a similar magic and i'm really enjoying it so far. especially how it's going even harder on the yuri vibes like. five minutes in we have girl who took 30,000 pictures of senpai in one year and other gil who's in love with 30k pictures girl. also an incredible cat. god. what a good start i'm so sold

hibi wa sugiredo meshi umashi: for most of the first ep i was thinking this is kind of like zatsu tabi where if you enjoy watching travel vlogs you'll probably like it, except it's food vlogs for this one. but it seems to have more of an actual plot! interested in seeing where this one goes

of the cute girls doing cute things trifecta, i'm most strongly sold on mono so far. everything about it is just so delightful to me

aharen-san s2: WELCOME BACK AHAREN MY BELOVED MOROSEXUAL4MOROSEXUAL ROMANCE man i really did not expect to enjoy this so much when i picked up the first season but it is so cute and funny and fun and healing. thrilled to see this bunch back, they are just so delightful to me. really looking forward to seeing more of their dating life! and the new characters! fun so far!

witch watch: trying not to get my hopes unreasonably up about this one but i loved kanata no astra, by the same author, so i'm. quite hopeful! actually watching the second ep as i write this and the first ep was already fun, but the second is even better. i don't think it's kanata no astra tier for me, but it doesn't need to be. delightful to see this author is still into adorable pink-haired one-brain-cell girls. they do have bill shoes to fill bc aries and kanata were like. peak morosexual4morosexual to me. just like aharen...... so anyway. hoping witch watch will deliver something similar lol

sentai daishikkaku s2: i need that heinous bitch sousei to come back and do some freak shit and i need him to do it now

uchuujin muumuu: "warring factions of our catlike alien race killed off all the engineers so the only ones to escape our planet before its destruction were us. the idiots" funniest goddamn setup i've ever heard. that sure does explain why this cat alien can't fix the spaceship it crashed lmao. really enjoying this so far! social anxiety girl + cat alien + various science/engineering facts. cute and educational

apocalypse hotel: oughhh god. god. i think i may end up having some shrimp emotions about this one it's so. melancholy already. because like. they're waiting. they're waiting for people who aren't going to come back...... can i cry...............

moonrise: haven't actually started this yet because it got... batch released...... rip. making a note here to remind myself i picked it up for the arakawa character designs mostly lol

[jjs-brainrot]

At last the Spring 2025 anime season has finally come to an end so that means it's time to rate the shows I picked up this go around!

This season Had a few disappointments, but also a few big surprises so Overall I'd say it was a pretty solid season!

A-Tier (Shows that I became obsessed with and were the highlight of my week)

Rock is a Lady's Modesty

Ojou-samas making the most thinly veiled metaphors for lesbian sex via rock music while flipping you off and calling your dick small and impotent… This show… It was made for me…

Ninkoro

What if gag comedy characters sustained permanent damage from their week to week gags? What if every gag, no matter how silly or insane, had incredibly cynical undertones? What if you got cucked by a robot version of yourself? Ninkoro asks all these questions and more all while being easily one of the most compelling shows this season.

I've Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years And Maxed Out My Level S2

Super cute, funny and chill isekai about a witch and her polycule getting into hijinks. Always managed to put a huge smile on my face every single episode!

Princession Orchestra

Extremely solid singing magical girl toku series that will easily win best soundtrack of the year without any competition coming close. Elements Garden wanted to one up themselves after Symphogear and they're honestly getting real close to doing so.

B-Tier (Good shows that I can definitely recommend giving a try)

Food for the Soul (Hibimeshi)

Super chill and fun foodie CGDCT iyashikei about college girls making good food together that will also inexplicably make you want a sheep hoodie so bad…

Mono Weekend Animation

Another super chill series from Afro-sensei that was quite fun but def felt like it could use a bit more focus. Easy recommend if you're wanting more Yuru Camp in your life.

The Catcher in the Ballpark!

Fun baseball anime that's primarily about the various staff working at a baseball stadium rather than just the baseball team. Solid peak up if you're wanting a more off beat sport anime.

C-Tier (shows I liked but were very flawed)

Guilty Gear Strive Dual Rulers

A really rough experience for anyone not already deep into Guilty Gear and was also not great visually. Ultimately it did give us Unika x Bridget content so it did manage to redeem itself somewhat but it's still hard to recommend unless you're already a Guilty Gear fan.

(S)pecial-Tier (For series that I've already read the source material. Can be either positive (+) or negative (-).)

nothing

(D)ropped/DNF/Do not Recommend Tier (only counting anime I've watched 6+ episodes of)

Nothing

[jiniretbabii]

SPLIT:

Yandere Seonghwa × Fem Reader

WARNING : Contrains the following:

Kidnapping

Vulgar and extreme language

Gruesome Murder

Physical Abuse

Mental Abuse

Illegal Drug usage

Heavy Alcohol consumption

Stalking

BDSM

HARDCORE SMUT

Extreme Mental illness

Seonghwa is absolutely batshit crazy....

Reader's Discretion is Advised.

3 years after the horrific Yuru Hana Academy school murders, Y/N being the only victim to escape with her life, she relocates to a large city to attend university to start anew. As she adjust to her new life, finally free of the petrifying past. A sadistic serial killer is now active in the city. The Split Murderer resurfaces possibly finish what was left unfinished…. Her

CHAPTER I:

“Breaking news: the mass serial killing spree that has shook the nation of South Korea has finally came to end in YuruHana Academy in the remote area in Southern South Korea. The Split Killer, 36 year old Minato Kobayashi a Japanese native and a former teacher at Yuru Hana Academy has been captured at the crime scene and was arrested and is being charged with the 18 murders known as the split murders. The sole survivor, 16 year old Song Y/N was found alive, naked bound and chained inside the abandoned Gonjibam Psychiatric Hospital 30 kilometers outside the town of Gwangyang-si. When police arrived, they discovered 4 bodies of students of Yuru Hana Academy that were dismembered. Police investigating the incident stated Kobayashi has a history of severe mental illness and when police raided his home found child pornography and photos of the students whom he targeted. The police are not releasing any further information as the investigation continues. We will keep you all updated on this horrific and tragic situation. I’m Yang Haneul and this is Seoul Channel 8 news.”

3 Years Later:

“Hi mom, sorry I couldn’t visit last month, I was preparing to move to start university. I wish you were at the graduation, but I know you were watching me from heaven. I might not be able to visit often, but I wanted to come and say I love you and I miss you, also happy birthday. Thank you for the life you gave me, even though I made some horrible decisions. Please forgive me and watch over me.” I said as I laid a bouquet of roses onto my mothers final resting place. Sending my final prayers, I stood up brushing the dirt off my jeans.

It’s been a year since her passing. Every month I came by to talk to her, despite being one sided.

Strolling through the graveyard I made one last visit to my friend, Yuki.

Seeing her small yet elegant memorial, her picture from when we were sophomores in high school. Her short black hair, radiant smile. “Heeeeey Yuk. It’s me y/n. How’s Heaven? Must be better than this shithole. Anyways I wanted to stop by and say I finally graduated!” I whispered, holding back tears. “I miss our crazy adventures, I miss our sleepovers, I miss the way we would skip class and go eat sushi by the lake.” The tears began to flood down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry that I got you into this mess, but they got him. They got Mr. Kobayashi. He’s being executed but don’t worry, you won’t be able to see him, he’s not making it to heaven. He’s going directly to hell. I know it sounds bad, but I did schedule a meeting with him before he’s hung. I hope to get an answer to why. Anyways I’m moving to the big city to start university. I’ll try to come visit sometimes. I love you, I miss you.”

It’s been 3 years since that dreadful night.

A night that would change my life forever.

A night I can never forget.

A night I can’t understand why.

3 years ago:

“Y/N I-I don’t know about this…” Yuki said grabbing right of my arm. “This place is creepy. So many people went missing here.”

I chuckled, “cmon YukYuk that’s just a story people told us to not come here. It’s just an old loony bin. Nobodies been here for ages. Doubt anybody goes missing here in broad daylight.”

We explored the old insane asylum as we ditched class to avoid the calculus test. Scattered rusted beds littered the hallways. Exploring around we find file cabinets ripped open with files empty of what was once filed with patient’s information.

We explored deeper into the building heading downstairs to what appeared to the maximum security area. Beds with straps, broken monitors and a feeling of despair.

“Y/N look!” She gasped. I turned to see what looked like blood. I stepped forward and examed the dark red fluid. A unsettling feeling filled my body. Something isn’t right. I crept forward to see where the liquid was coming from. “Y/N we should really go. I have a bad feeling about this. Please!”

I ignored her, curiously took over.

Slowly I walked, my shoes clicking, echoing off the dead walls.

I shrieked and fell backwards.

There it was, a body sawed in half. I dropped my flash flight and scurried. “We gotta go!” I panicked. Yuki ran to see what I was seeing.

She quickly covered her mouth to silence her scream. There lied Minho. Sawed in half. Eyes wide looking into the ceiling.

We began to race off the building but was stopped when I loud bang halted us.

The large door of the max security area locked us in.

Trapped.

Loud, slow footsteps echoed from afar. “We need to hide!” I whispered, tears running down my face. We took off our shoes and dashed to find a dark hiding spot.

A dark eerie humming began to ring through the area.

Hearts racing I held Yuki’s hand. ‘God if you exist, please save us!’ I kept repeating in my head.

Me and Yuki hid in a dark nurses room underneath the desk. Holding each other tight in silence. The humming and footsteps got louder and louder.

Each step shook my heart.

“My love, my love, please do not be afraid, my love, my love, everything will be okay.” The deep voice sang.

Yuki began to sob, I placed my hand over her mouth, “shhhh please!” I pleaded.

The singing got louder and closer. “My love, my love, can’t you see, my love, my love, you belong to me.”

Time passed as the tension began to build.

The man kept singing and singing and then it the singing went silent. We stayed hidden under the dark desk, thinking he was gone.

“I know you’re hiding in here.”

My heart sank, eyes widened. Biting my lip, breaking the skin, bleeding to hold in my sobs. Me and Yuki remained quiet.

The heavy footsteps began to roar as it got closer and closer to where we were. Tucking our bodies tight, praying he won’t notice us hiding.

“My love, my love, please don’t be scared, Y/N, Y/N I’m the only one who cared.”

The man was standing right in front of the desk.

“Found you!”

He grabbed Yuki’s leg, dragging her.

“NO PLEASE! LET ME GO! Y/N! HELP ME!”

I scurried from the desk, “YUKI!” I screamed.

*WHACK!*

Everything went black……

Chapter II and III comes Monday at 20:00 EST!!!

Writing isn’t my best thing, but I would love feedback and suggestions! Love you guys!!!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

[dragontamer05]

I do like how they show they're awkward/unfamiliar pronuciation of certain words.

Yuru looking ready to kill him