Shinchou Yuusha‘s delays mean that I had to wrap this up basically on the day the new season started happening.
The new season began on a Saturday for me (the day for BnHA and Mairimashita! Iruma-kun), so that’s why they’re behind an episode more than I could have caught up on – that’s why I’ve listed the number of the last episode I finished alongside those two and put “finished” after the rest.
In order of the place they finished in, since I kept consistent rankings (for myself) this season:
Shinchou Yuusha (finished)
Although this anime sat comfortably at the top of the rankings until around the introduction of Mash and Elulu, where it was dethroned by No Guns Life and Stars Align, I’m of two minds about the ending. It’s quite sweet to think Seiya and Ristarte knew each other in a previous life, it’s rare to get such a positive ending considering Seiya died (and I came pretty close to crying at it) and I should be thankful the anime wrapped up properly, but…heck, the fact they’ve met up again and again is a little frustrating. I think that’s where most of my annoyance stems from…although notably, the same amount of coincidences was in Netjuu no Susume. I probably stomached that better because Ristarte keeps pleading against fate to be with Seiya when I’m not actively rooting for their romance to be a thing, while in Netjuu no Susume they need that to keep furthering the plot.
Stars Align/Hoshiai no Sora (finished)
If you didn’t hear, Akane (director) didn’t want to have 12 eps – he wanted 24 – and had a last-minute change to 12, so the show drops off in the middle.
That said, what we did get was pretty stellar (pun unintended), even if it is somewhat truncated. The drama is heavy-handed enough that it became pretty hard to stomach and so kept 2nd place even with the nasty cliffhanger, but the show was awesome at its best (such as the running scene in episode 2).
No Guns Life (finished)
Funky-looking as it may be, No Guns Life did end up plumbing the depths of its themes quite well, although it tends to drop the ball with Beruhren in play (meaning I believe episode 12 is one of the best single episodes the series can give, plus episodes 10 – 11 weren’t too shabby either). I look forward to catching these crazy cats again in spring.
Dr Stone (finished)
The series got better than cour 1 did, but Dr Stone‘s best unfortunately isn’t enough to radically change the rankings (its top spot for this season, I believe, was no. 3, but it was also the most volatile show of the season in regards to rankings). Episodes with Lillian’s singing were some of the best, to the point where I found the OST on Spotify. I find the best parts of Dr Stone are when it combines action and science, by the way – a lot of anime can give action, but action x science is not a combo that happens a lot outside the obvious categories (i.e. mecha and sci-fi series) – Dr Stone does count as a sci-fi, but I like to see it more specifically as a “speculative apocalyptic” story instead.
BnHA (73)
BnHA is just doing what BnHA does best at this point – long arcs and discussion of what it means to be a hero. If you thought BnHA was a 100% Deku, 100% of the time story though, this should prove you wrong because it suddenly made the Big 3’s male members the stars (much to the detriment of those who want girls in shonen series to do more). That doesn’t mean it (or any of these bottom 3, for the matter – this is just the best of what I can sit through seasonally and I’m sure I’ve skipped some good stuff just by picking 6 shows) is bad, however – it just means we’re used to it, as I remember stating for the winter 2020 hype post.
Iruma-kun (12)
It’s fun, but not a ranking-topper. I’m waiting for a few of the moments I read about in the spoilers (the ones I mention in the winter 2020 hype post) to happen…so if you don’t want to know and don’t read the manga (or spoilers like I do), turn away now.
The spoilers I want to happen are:
- Iruma becoming evil, courtesy of his ring demon (Arikured),
- Asmodeus’s mother appearing (her name is Amaryllis, as opposed to her son’s name Alice…this is how I discovered “Alice” is Azz-Azz’s first name – do note she might appear in ep. 13, based on what the preview was showing) and…
- Iruma and Azz-Azz crossdressing (because apparently they make pretty good girls…?)
…okay, you can come back now, anime-only watchers.
I think the show can only get better once these spoilers are in play, but otherwise it’s just been Demon Hogwarts: the Anime. That is to say, it’s not bad – in fact, Iruma-kun has some pretty cool spots of animation, such as when the ring demon comes out, and it never looks particularly derpy – and I never knew I needed a ponytail Iruma until he got that way for dodgeball execution cannonball, but the power of a perfectly fine time-waster is not to be taken for granted.
So how’d your fall season go? Are you looking forward to Dr Stone‘s or No Guns Life‘s season 2s?