Yikes…I almost forgot to wrap up the season again.

I’ve finished all the shows bar Dr Stone, so here’s the last impressions of summer 2019.

Previous impressions on the season:

• Summer 2019 First Impressions: One Demon Lord Too Many
• Summer 2019 First Impressions: The Final Stretch
• Random Musings on Given’s First Episode
• Summer 2019 Mid-Season Check-In

Note: Normally I wouldn’t put a warning for spoilers since it seems like a given most times, but this time, I really took advantage of the fact this post can have some pretty blatant spoilers, so avoid whichever ones you need to.

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Astra

Not something I cried to (unlike other people, according to what I’ve read around the ‘net), but I got pretty close. I guess because I read spoilers about the ending before I finished the show, I saw all the end twists coming so I wasn’t particularly bothered by the fact there was the additional twist of Polina being 100 years older than she really was.

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Given

Given is good, y’all, but clearly needed a bit of a visual fix. My visual quibbles are going to go away with the movie, though…at least, I hope so.

Given was unique in that I was expecting some sexual scenes that would be rather unpalatable (well, the precedent was DakaIchi so I guess that’s why) and instead got this music-focussed anime with the gay relationship on the periphery, which I find I enjoy a lot more. I didn’t get to Google as much as I thought I would, but that doesn’t really matter in the long run.

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Dr Stone

Tournament arc happening…and you thought a science show wouldn’t have a reason to incorporate one.

As I continue through Dr Stone, I’ve realised the show always seems to lay out its plans well at the expense of thinking options being laid out are the only options available to the characters laying them out in the first place. Senku and co. seem to think the only way to get alcohol is to win it via said tournament arc, but…couldn’t they just steal it (or get Gen to steal it for them)??? (I remember one review I read said to get Taiju back so they could make it themselves, which could also work.)

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Kimetsu no Yaiba

More latent movie hype. You’ll be able to see more detailed (and yet also authentic) impressions through the collab – the final episode’s post is Moya’s job, but episodes 24 and 25 are covered here.

It dragged in bits and Zenitsu in particular was annoying until he won me over (with Inosuke to a lesser extent, but he stopped being annoying when 1) he got silenced by Spider Dad and 2) I found a way to understand where he was coming from, character-wise), but overall the show was a net positive.

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Fruits Basket

It’s not that I actively disliked Fruits Basket…it didn’t make me cry a tonne, but it did make me chuckle every now and again (which is exactly what happened when I read the manga too, come to think of it). The problem with Fruits Basket is that it has a pace that doesn’t really lend itself to weekly watching (unlike action or mystery series, which give you much more of a reward for watching weekly), which is why it’s sat in the back half of the rankings right up until the end of season 1. (I guess it also doesn’t help that I’ve been watching Fruits Basket and Dr Stone while doing chores as of late, which is why I find them unbloggable and I don’t care about the characters as much.)

I do know it will only get better from here. After all, we haven’t gotten to the horse and the rooster yet.

By the way, it seems like an eternity since I read through Fruits Basket, so I really didn’t remember where Kyo’s true form came into the story.

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Cop Craft

It didn’t have a particularly neat conclusion, but then again, it sorta was like an egg thrown on to a car windshield – messy and going everywhere, but somehow still coherent. I did not expect Zelada “coming back from the dead”, but then again, we never confirmed the body when we thought he was done with…

If I ever get Seven Seas to get the LNs, I’d be curious to see whether the pacing problem is inherent to them as well…

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So finally, we officially have the summer 2019 anime season behind us on this here blog. What did you enjoy the most from this season?