"Lolis for no reason other than to pander" can describe a lot of anime.

Hell, sometimes that's all the show is and they don't even bother coming up with a compelling world or story around it.

 

The one thing they kinda used it was that attack on the factory where she gave the warning but since she is a little kid and sounds like it, no one took her seriously but honestly, that scene hardly justified her age.

Such a waste. So stupid.

 

It could have been interesting if they had gone the route that a lot of decent SI fics go and actually explored what it is like to have an adult in a child's body. See how they interact with the world around them, their family, their peers, etc.

But that was never going to be this story as it makes the conscious decision to entirely avoid that and skip straight to Tanya being established as a soldier of repute.

Otherwise, you wouldn't have thrown her into a perfect meritocracy would you? You'd make her actually fight a bit more for her place.

 

I tried watching Youjo Senki... but I couldn't get through the barrage of duck lips.

 

I'm watching Konosuba, Dragon Maid and Demi-chan.

Konosuba's pretty standard, but Dragon Maid and Demi-chan are both something I wouldn't usually watch, but are surprisingly fun. I guess I'm into casual fun slice of life now?

 

Really Youjo Senki? A recap episode? For a 13 episode anime? At episode 6!?

Thought we had escaped mid season recap eps years ago....

 

I tried watching Little Witch Academia, because I'm on a supernatural kick and hey, it's anime Harry Potter, right? Unfortunately, I don't like it. I got five episodes in until I gave up.

The good point is the art and animation. They're absolutely gorgeous, to the point where it's well worth pausing every now and then to drink in the scenery. The concept is great and the character designs are lovely too.

What lets all of it down is the incohesive plot. The setting and concept are so closely inspired by Harry Potter that it seems hard to fail at it, but where Harry Potter takes its time in introducing you to the world of magic through the lens of a character who hasn't grown up in the world, this anime just dives right into a boring episodic anime formula without stopping to appreciate or build up the setting or characters at all. Maybe this is only an issue because I haven't seen the OVAs or the movie that precluded the 2017 series, but for an anime that seems to start from the start, I feel like it doesn't do that very well.

We start off with the protagonist going off to fulfil her dream of becoming a witch at the same school her idol did, full of wonder at magic which she's never done before. By the very next episode, she's complaining about boring teachers, failing at understanding magic, randomly doing spells even though she still failed at understanding magic, and getting into arguments. The progression is all over the place. Fundamentally, we don't get a solid footing on what magic is all about before the show starts moving onto random plot threads.

Everything feels mashed together without explanation, from the locations to the excuses to throw the heroines into an adventure. A lot of the plot developments rely heavily on telling you what's going on rather than it following logically on from whatever happened before, and whenever this occurs it's inevitably abrupt and jarring, from 'Here's a withered magical tree. Fix it' to 'You're in detention because of something you did off-screen. Get out of it'. Yeah, that's right - their very first detention, assigned off-screen. That sort of thing should be a big ordeal to a first-year at a new school, but in this anime, it's just glossed over as an excuse to dive into a new tangentially related plot. They skim past the heart of the school setting to focus more on ever-increasing spectacle instead.

So that's the crux of the issue: the episodes don't really feel like they fit together or build up to something, and all the new developments from the very start seem to come from nowhere. It's so unsatisfying to watch, and that's frustrating because it's clear how much potential the series has. Maybe I should have watched the movie, or maybe it's just not for me.

Interested to hear what you guys think of it, though.

 

I think ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka just wrested top spot in the race for this seasons best anime for me.

 

Drifters - drawing style might not be everyone's cup of tea but everyone should give this a shot. Rated M so be ready to encounter some mature themes and gore

 

To be honest, I also stopped at episode 5. Not because I disliked the show, but because I simply forgot about it, which might be worse.

Each episode was fun, but there was really no hook to entice me back each week. It was repetitive: Akko fails at magic and embarasses herself, a teacher punishes her, Akko gushes over Chariot, Akko does something stupid and causes a problem, Akko does something Chariot related to save the day. Rinse and repeat.

However since I saw your post and was reminded of LWA's existence, I have just binged episodes 6-10 and really liked them. Akko seems to be starting to be progressing with each episode now and isn't the cause of the problem every time. A new recurring character has been introduced and I am hesitantly onboard.

I still can't believe it took until episode 8 for Sucy to get the focus of an episode. That episode was hilarious and is definitely my favorite so far. She should have been used more way earlier instead of Lotte and Amanda episodes. More Sucy please.

 

I've only been watching konosuba this season. I liked the Little Witch Academia OVA but had trouble getting into the new series. I'll likely give it another go in a few weeks.
As for Konosuba, so far it's been great. I was actually a bit surprised that it got continued as all too often they treat shows like that as extended trailers for the source material but I guess the fan base in Japan was big enough to get the second season. Given the decent comedy and the fairly slow pacing it could end up being a somewhat long running show. There's no sign of them meeting the demon king any time soon so as long as the show can remain popular enough to not get cancelled there's hopefully plenty more to come.

 

I love KonoSuba but 99.99% it's never getting a third season. Ever.

For one thing, the ending is a lot more definitive than it was last season. For another, the funding really isn't there - the show's good, but good and popular are entirely different things.

 

Whether a series gets continued is all dependent on the BD sales and such over there. Probably not gonna happen.

 

Yeah, that Konosuba ending felt like the real deal. Obviously, the novels go beyond that, but I'll be surprised if the anime continues. Shame, it was great.

 

It took 11 episodes to get there, but I think Little Witch Academia finally has an actual plot. Here's hoping the rest of the series will be a bit less episodic.

I do love the Akko/Ursula relationship and I'm happy its finally becoming a bigger part of the show.

 

So, Kuzu No Honkai ended. I really liked it a lot. The animation was gorgeous, it had some of the best use of music ever, especially the transitions to the ED.

Storywise, some people probably wont like all the elements in it, but I thought the only major weakness was introducing characters who had rather major impact for a moment and then vanished.

Spoiler

The ending, where Akane gets a happy ending, while Hanabi gets more of a bittersweet ending and no-one really gets any karmic justice thrown at them was also very good IMO, as too often endings either go full bad end or unrealistically nice end.

 

I have yet to finish Kuzu No Honkai, but what I saw so far I absolutely loved. Glad to see it's finished so I can finish it in one go one of these days.

But for now, I want to talk about Saga of Tanya the Evil, which has also concluded its current season today, if I understood things correctly.

Honestly, I loved the show. The animation is great, loved the opening song, the way the fight scenes are handled is excellent, the dogfight with mages thing was really fun to watch and Tanya herself is actually a really fun character.

I especially appreciated it wasn't like Alderamin, where you have the genius Protag lecturing the incompetent and cowardly brass on how to wage war. Honestly, I think the military leadership of the Empire were all portrayed as capable and cunning, who were able to utilize their assets really well. What Tanya brought in wasn't modern tech or some awesome strategies but rather making them realize the scope of the war they were fighting and even then not fully.

I quite liked the trenchwarfare stuff in the earlier episodes but that really only lasted so long as the fights were more focused on the dogfights in the air for the most part. Which wasn't bad, those were fun as well. We get so few WW1 stories though, so I wish we would have seen a bit more on that.

Side characters weren't especially memorable but I didn't have any that pissed me of or that annoyed me or anything. They kinda fulfilled their role and even that female lieutenant was endearing to me from the second she was introduced and how she stood to Tanya. The squad in general was decent enough.

What of course carried the show was Tanya herself, her expressions and her speeches. Especially the one in this last episode was really, really fun though. She has so much energy in them, they are a joy to witness.

So yeah. It doesn't exactly tell a great story or anything but it is enjoyable from beginning to end. Really, about the only flaw is that Tanya is 12. If you added 5 years on her, literally nothing would change, don't think even a line of dialogue and it would have the advantage that I wouldn't feel slightly ashamed for reccing it. It's not like there is any sexualization of her or anything. She isn't perved on, there are no butt or chest shots or anything like that. Thankfully, we don't get any scenes like that.

She's just 12 but everyone treats her as if she was a grown-up man, which she is inside, although no one knows. It's just weird that no matter how capable she is, the Empire is sending a 12 year old child as a military officer overseeing some of their most important missions. Like, there is this disconnect there that never really goes away, no matter how great the fight scene is or how dramatic.

I guess the original creators just really liked 12 year old girls in uniform doing horrible things. Or maybe it's there to keep from ever getting too serious although the show does take itself seriously enough.

Still, very worth watching. Not the best anime of the season but definitely the most enjoyable one, for me at least.

Fuck that recap episode though.

 

The ending theme is fucking great as well.

While there really is no discernible reason for Tanya to be 12, I never minded it too much. The author probably finds the contrast of little girl doing psycho stuff funny, although it is a bit strange considering the show doesn't really steer into humor all that often.

But fuck it if this show wasn't a blast all around. The action is enjoyable, the voice acting for Tanya is fucking superb and I just always had fun watching it, which for me is pretty much the most important criteria. Top three show this season with Kuzu No Honkai and Acca-13 for me.

 

It's interesting because you look at the premise and you kinda expect it to be shit through and through but honestly, it's far better than an anime with the protag being a psycho loli at war deserves to be.

Like, despite all reason, it's actually just fucking good. So weird.

 

Finished both Youjo Senki and Kuzu no Honkai. Both were absolutely fantastic shows.

Youjo Senki was the big surprise. Anime like that are usually driven entirely off a gimmick that loses its edge within the first few episodes. In this case, Tanya being a psychopath reincarnated into a loli having a war with god. But the show seemed to move past that and introduce a generally entertaining war story.

I really liked that the guys in the strategy division for once were actually portrayed as very intelligent and very competent. Not usually how military generals are represented in anime.

The battles became quite spectacular too.

Kuzu no Honkai continued to deliver for me. Not sure if it was true to manga that @Republic derided before, but I found I enjoyed each of the individual character's developments, interactions and journeys (apart from Noriko cause meh).

I even really grew to really enjoy Akane's own story. The only thing that really irritated me is that in an anime that was entirely made up of three dimensional, highly flawed characters, Kanai's apparent selfless love for Akane seemed entirely forced, rushed and unrealistic. He in general seemed more like a plot device than a character.