Noblesse is the big thing cut from the list because apparently you need the Awakening OVA to understand that and I don’t think I want to watch that if the anime itself is kinda terrible.

• Higurashi
• HypMic
• 100-man
• Tonikawa
• Majo no Tabitabi
• Yashahime
• Munou na Nana
• Grace of the Gods
• Maou-jou
• IWGP
• Crusade (there was half an episode dropped in advance, but I waited until the full episode was released to put impressions here)
• Akudama
• Jujutsu Kaisen
• Kamisama
• Taiso
• Moriarty
• Golden Kamuy 3
• Magatsu

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You’ll notice some anime are pushed back a week like I’ve done previously, but most aren’t. The subscription I mentioned in this round-up post means I now get to watch Funimation-licensed anime the day they drop, but Crunchyroll is more expensive per month to my knowledge and so isn’t worth the money just yet. All the anime in this post are from Funimation and friends, by the way.

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Maou-jou de Oyasumi

It took a bit to get to the amount of humour necessary for me to like it, but between “cute”, “funny” and “non-scary spooky”, it does everything it sets out to do.

…It would work better with a dub, I think.

Notes:

• I sampled this manga with what’s called a “Viz sampler”. I only ever seem to find those at libraries, so I’d assume only they and bookstores can get those.
• …Twilight looks like Maou Sadao (Hataraku Maou-sama!).
• “Dawner”??? I can read katakana, ya idjits. His name is Akatsuki. Update: The translator must’ve gone, “Dawn is a girl’s name. Let’s tack on an -er so it looks like a guy’s name.”
• Aw, Hiro Shimono is Akatsuki. If it were Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, we could’ve gotten a Kirito joke out of it.
• Oh! 快眠 (Kaimin) = good rest, literally “happy sleep”. Hence this is the nation of Good(e?)reste. I see.
• I’m gonna die from cuteness from all the teddies and seals!
• The little fanfare is so cute and the yokudekimashita reminds me of my days playing Neo Bomberman (which had a flower sticker much like this one). I wanna see this get a dub and succeed on all its merits! It’s basically my baby already…bar the fact it took a bit to work up to the first good bit of comedy. Fun fact: IIRC, the flower sticker is called a hanamaru.
• The teddy demons are called Debiakuma, a pun on kuma (bear) and devil + akuma (devil). Lessee…After “lesser demon”, there’s more text…“Fluffy bears that can be also used as pets. They give in easily to temptation. A lot of them live in the demon castle, so the princess likes to gather their fur, dye it and spin nice cotton out of it. Warning: A lot of them will either run away or call you their friend./Occasionally act as friends for the princess.”
• *hears Scissors Demon going -ageruwa”, which is a feminine sentence ending…that’s Suwabe trying to (voice) act effeminate???!!! Update: I’ve been thinking about it and the -wa may or may not mean that, but the falsetto Suwabe put on suggests he is (voice) acting in the way I think he is.
• These trumpet sounds never get old.
• Okay, my turn again: Hari means needle, toge means thorn. Next to “His stomach is soft”, part of the subs are cut off due to Funimation’s hardsubs, but I can read “he is proud of his defence” on the 2^nd line, “is the type to not refuse when relied on” on the 2^nd-last line and “his favourite food is strange bird chawanmushi” on the last line.
• I hadn’t heard of “seesaw battles” until now. but the metaphor does make sense…kind of.
• Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Kirito was under my nose all along! Damn Demon Kinggggggggggggggggggg!

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Ikebukuro West Gate Park

It’s decent and kinda fun, but I don’t know if it will hold up against its competition. Other opinions on this one have been from “fun” to “eh”, too, so I’m not alone.

Notes:

• Japan is pretty anti-drugs as it stands, so this storylines makes sense.
• The owl is a pun. Fukurou (owl) rhymes with ‘bukuro (“bag”, which is the 2nd character in “Ikebukuro”). There’s also an owl statue used as a meeting spot, much like Hachiko in Shibuya…(I learnt a bunch of things about the division territory through HypMic. Let me show off…)
• I think the character designer for this anime also did Joker Game…that’s throwing me off a little. Also, they had a prime opportunity to use a Buster Bros song, so I’m still a bit miffed about that – this OP’s kinda standard. Update: The character designer is Junichiro Taniguchi – my insinct was wrong on him. He did Touken Ranbu Hanamaru’s character designs.
• “Smoking kills” – Yuuuuuuuup. That’s true.
• Curiously, the one who hates drugs in HypMic is Jyuto, who’s not from Ikebukuro Division at all. Hmm…
• Yokoyama’s voice sounds familiar…but I’m not sure why. Update: If I had to guess, I’d say he’s Saito Soma or someone who sounds similar, so maybe Takuma Terashima, Daisuke Ono or something like that. Update 2: Takahiro Sakurai. See? I knew I knew that voice.
• “Big Rei” (“Rei-nii”). That’s different from “Ichi-nii” (what Saburo calls Ichiro) and could also be goroawase for 02.
• Uni of Tokyo is the most prestigious uni in Japan.
• Zero One kinda looks like Uta (Tokyo Ghoul), LOL.
• …and of course the girl has to rely on the dude. *sigh* Welp, we can throw drugs off the list for “things that count as TV-MA to Funimation” – IWGP is rated M (not 15+ explicitly, but that’s what it stands for normally) in my region.
• This ED song…that’s the sort of song I was expecting from HypMic, Akudama or this.

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Crusade

Pretty pedestrian. I can see people liking this because the female characters have big knockers, but it’s not something you can’t see anywhere else, including Shakespeare’s work. The only really unique thing is the science vs. magic fights, which…kind of look as intended.

Notes:

• …huh? The simulcast starts on the 8^th in my region…there’s a 14 minute thing here which is called “episode 1”. Is this a teaser? Update: Yes. Turns out it was most of the 1st ep.
• There’s boob jiggle, illogical princess carries and animation shortcuts, but it’s not good enough to continue with but also simultaneously not bad enough to drop.

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Akudama Drive

Fun, with minor caveats (see notes). It seems people mostly came to this one because of the Dangan Ronpa talent on staff, but I could care less about that – it reminds me more of Juuni Taisen than that.

Notes:

• You can tell Ordinary Person is an okay person because she keeps saving cats. A bit cliché, but it’ll do.
• Ohhhhhh…I can see where this plotline is going. Ordinary Person pretends to be Swindler to get herself out of this mess, but then she keeps getting involved with the Akudama. It’s a typical plot for a typical gal, common to insert a viewpoint character in series that require one, or a magical girl ally.
• …Ordinary Person has some real bullseye…uh, eyes.
• This could be a top contender…aside from the CGI, which does look a bit funky. I’m getting a death game vibe here, but I don’t know if that’s really the case. Also, it’s a lot of fun, but the possible intolerable thing here is Ordinary Person’s screaming – the pretense she has to keep up seems like it’ll fit right in though.

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Ratings

Idolish7 has been waiting half a year and Healin’ Good PreCure continues for most of a year, so I only need 4 anime. I’m not going to put in the threshold on this post because the new Crunchyroll titles are coming in over the weekend, plus I’m missing Golden Kamuy which was pretty high in my pre-season rankings.

Watching:

• HypMic (1 ep)
• Akudama Drive (1 ep)
• Maou-jou (1 ep)
• Yashahime (1 ep)
• Wandering Witch (1 ep)
• IWGP (1 ep)
• Higurashi (1 ep, may move erratically now that its “real title” has been announced)
• Munou na Nana (1 ep)

Paused:

• Crusade (1 ep)
• 100-man (1 ep)

Dropped:

• Grace of the Gods (1 ep, re-evaluate)
• Tonikawa (1 ep)

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So, how’s your fall season so far? (For a refresher on what I’m excited for, check this post.)