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This is the type of show that probably shouldn't work, especially not for me. I'm generally dismissive of ecchi, especially when it feels gratuitous, and this show kind of leans into that with all the breasts on display and scenes of sexual arousal. I also generally don't like harems, yet this show leans into that with Kintaro picking up women episode after episode only to leave them chasing after him. Couple that with a horned up lead who seems to fall for every woman and toilet he finds but is somehow great at everything he tries and this should really be putting me off...

...so why ... isn't it? A lot of the reason is the comedy. This show really does play everything for laughs in the best way, making even the gratuitous nudity just part of the joke. Kintaro does become really good at a lot of odd jobs, but he starts from the bedrock and works his way up, which leads to some of the funniest scenes in the whole series, his first swim in particular being a stand-out. The situations he finds himself in, particularly with the women around him who expect him to behave a certain way because he's horny, also yield some comedic surprises and even a few heartfelt ones.

It's not so much that the show subverts these elements so much as that it leans into them at just the right angle, making the most out of elements other shows might lean on as a crutch. And yeah, sometimes it leads to Looney Tunes-esque road races where a dude on a bike rides on top of a power line and survives an impossible fall off a bridge. Sometimes it leads to ruining a business only to pull off a miracle of programming because he took copious notes. Sometimes it leads to giving a young girl a reason to value herself that she believed was lost to her.

Yes, they all end up chasing after him for sex, but that's kind of the beauty of it. This is a man who is incredibly adaptable, capable of picking up new skills in a span of time most wouldn't believe possible and performing physical feats the likes of which no one may ever see. He's often insightful and, though he comes off as naive, he does understand people better than he lets on. And he's dedicated... until he's not. When he leaves, he doesn't look back (except to ask the occasional favor) and has a big blind spot about how people see him. It means that this specimen of a man will probably always end up chasing the ladies until they start chasing him, only for him to be unable to recognize it and run away. It's kind of a male fantasy if said male never actually gets what he really wants, just picking up useful skills and being helpful wherever he is.

And so he rides off into the sunset, doomed to have a harem of women nipping at his heels as he goes to add more to the mix. It's kind of a brilliant way to handle it, and I definitely appreciated the work they put into this classic series.

Kimi ni Todoke is one of those series that I went into with low expectations and was absolutely blown away. I'm a fan of romance stories told well, but generally speaking, high school romances aren't the deepest well of characterization and interpersonal drama. Whether we're talking anime or otherwise, these tend to be pretty surface-level, tropey and uninteresting.

This series broke the mold in some ingenious ways, and while I could go on for quite some time about how S1 blew me away and even S2, which represented a substantial step down in terms of pacing and development, still continued to impress, I'm here to talk ... about S3, which has reset the gold standard.

So now it's spoiler time.

The central relationship between Sawako and Kazehaya has always been a massive draw of the series. I've loved it from the start, and while I could gush effusively about Sawako's development and how Kazehaya facilitated much of it, there's a key element that it has consistently been missing: more insight into Kazehaya and his development. Turns out, we just needed another season to get there. Turns out, these two are more alike than I ever would have thought, both intensely neurotic and in their own heads about perceived selfishness on their parts.

You want to shout at the screen that it's not selfish to want something from your romantic partner, as it's often what brings you closer as a couple. The constant worry Kazehaya experiences that he's forcing Sawako to move to greater intimacy, as well as the pushback he gets from their fathers and teacher on pursuing said intimacy (they, of course, think he's pushing it much further than he actually is), is something I can relate to and it's marvelous to see how, even in a relationship where they communicate very well, their uncertainties and insecurities put up barriers. I didn't mind that it took them quite a while to break down those barriers, and more importantly, I loved that it was Sawako's own outburst that finally brought them crashing down. This is not something Sawako would have done at any other point in the series, and it shows both a trust in her own feelings and her perception of Kazehaya's.

But there's so much more to this season than S&K. Chizuru and Ryuu are my favorite couple in the series and my favorite characters because their relationship is distinct, and episode 3 furnished the strongest proof of that. Getting to experience their shared tragedy and seeing both of them cope with it was inspiring, and it led to the formation of a bond of found family that left me in tears. It also established a bit more of how each of them sees the other.

Chizuru sees Ryuu not just as a brother, but also as someone who is constantly misunderstood due to his not expressing his emotions as clearly as others. She refuses to let him suffer in silence, and is there to interpret for him and champion him all the time. Ryuu, meanwhile, sees Chizuru as more than just a sister partially because of the connections she's forged with him, yet he has always been stymied by the feelings she has had towards his own brother. But rather than get angry about it, Ryuu just kept his crush to himself and kept with the relationship that only made him feel closer to her. This season, he is blatant about his feelings because he can't stand to be stoic anymore. The relationship they've forged, one that Chizuru suddenly feels is slipping away from them, has the opportunity to transform into something romantic, and even if it morphs some of their bonds, he's willing to take the risk and it's Chizuru who has to come to grips with that new reality. Their romance is probably experiences the least forward momentum of the central three, but it's also the one that started out with a much closer bond, and it's certainly not for lack of development or care. This remains my favorite element of the series.

And then there's Ayane. If there was one thing I was hoping for this season, it was some romantic development for her, and oh boy, did this season ever deliver. Ayane has constantly been a sort of wingwoman, particularly to Sawako, and while she's just the best of friends, she's unfortunately remained a side character. There have been hints at her own desires, and as romance has developed for the other characters, we've seen her become more and more isolated personally. And this season she goes out with someone. Physically, their relationship progresses faster than anyone. Emotionally, it's a dead end, leaving Ayane in tears as she feels more distant than ever from her own personal happiness.

And then there's Miura. I didn't like this guy back in S2. It seemed like his entire purpose in S2 was to create a love triangle that was felt manufactured. There was no real tension that Sawako and Kazehaya weren't going to get together, so he just felt like an obstacle meant to drag out the confession. This season, he comes into his own, finding Ayane and pursuing her relentlessly even as she rebuffed him. If that's all he did, he'd be pretty creepy, but he really showed that he understood Ayane and her desires. He understood that, despite all her maturity, she was still pent up romantically, still lost on even how to find love. And the points of connection he makes with her are excellent, showing a bit of immaturity and lack of coolness on his part that also demonstrated his care for her.

There are plenty of characters that get some real attention outside of the main group, particularly Sawako's father and Pin, the latter of whom always seems to understand the kids better than they do themselves while engaging with them in the worst possible ways. It's great. If I have one complaint that holds this back from being absolutely amazing, it's that Ume only got a bit part in one episode. They fit a lot into this season, but she didn't get a huge role in S2 (an important one, yes, but not huge) and she's basically a background character in this one. After how amazing she was in S1, it's a shame to see her slip this far. If I had another much more minor complaint, it’s that the ending episode was a step down from the others. Light and fluffy, it was a good palette cleanser that left us on a high note, but didn’t stand out nearly as much as the other four. And no, I’m not upset that we only got 5 episodes. Each being an hour really suited this series and basically filled out a full season and then some.

My Hero Academia is the kind of series that I'm of two minds about. It's never really been anything to write home about in the narrative department, its worldbuilding has generally been lackluster, and its characters are pretty bargain bin basic. That being said, the execution has been where this series sang. Opportunities to see things from both the hero and villain sides, getting a whole arc of My Villain Academia (badly handled in the anime, but beautifully done in the manga), creative usage of quirks and efforts to use them in combination, and some of the absolutely amazing manga panels have made this series ... a stand-out in its own way. I'd hesitate to call this a great manga, but it comes closer than many would give it credit for...

...up to a point. Look, I don't mind war arcs. I don't mind when they're virtually back-to-back with one another as long as they're distinct, and these certainly were. What I mind is when the series decides to drag out one of those war arcs as long as possible by belaboring the pacing, which they certainly did with the most recent one. I also just didn't enjoy many of the fight resolutions. To the end, the series refused to kill any heroic characters off, and while that makes nothing but sense for the likes of Endeavor who seeks to atone for his wrongs, it does feel a little absurd given the scale of the fight and just how many random characters clearly died in the crossfire. Someone, not just a villain, should have bit it here. It didn't help that the major fights ended anticlimactically, so despite the slow pacing, the series couldn't stick the landing on its buildup.

And then we get to the epilogue. The combination of these final two arcs brought down my enjoyment of the series to a large extent, but the epilogue was probably the most disappointing. It was an opportunity for these characters and this world to come together, to reconcile with the fact that they'd just being through an apocalyptic threat brought on in part by a lack of trust in heroes and Japan's abandonment by most other world powers that resulted in mass casualties. This was the worldbuilding I was looking for... and it never came. Nope, other heroes from around the world just show up and are sad they didn't participate, so now they're rebuilding Japan. Incredibly weak resolution to one of the few things I was really invested in from the last couple of arcs.

The rest of the epilogue is mainly just character moments and a short time skip. Ochako blames herself for Toga's death because Toga, who stabbed her, ended up giving her blood to Ochako to save her life. So Ochako feels bad that the girl who nearly killed her... sacrificed her own life to undo that near killing... I don't mind that she has regrets about Toga, but this is just some bullshit and really took me out of the moment, as did everyone's rallying around her as though this was the appointed time for her to have resolution for no reason other than they all happened to gather now.

But the cherry on top of this incredibly disappointing ending was a decision to call back to, no joke, the villain Syndrome from The Incredibles. Great character, love him, but... wow. First they change Deku's line from the beginning of the series to "and that’s the story of how we all became… the greatest heroes.” We can all be winners, I guess, and since support items can make virtually everyone a powerful hero now who can employ multiple quirks, I guess it doesn't matter what superpowers anyone is born with. We can all be super. And when everyone's super... no one will be. But nah, we're not going to engage with that. We've got a happy splash panel of the grown-up MHA students together to show.

It's just weak. I can appreciate some of what they're doing in this epilogue, but it's weak and so much of what's here just doesn't deliver on what was setup. The heteromorph subplot where characters are mistreated for not looking human? Solved off-screen and Tentacole even gets an award for doing it. Subplot with characters who have villainous-seeming quirks who get shunned by society and become villains? Solved off-screen by a team-up of a few characters visiting schools. Time skips solve everything. It's just all very hand-wavy, and so even on themes the series was doing well, it just falls flat.

MHA isn't a bad series, but it's much less than the sum of its parts, which is disappointing. There was more than enough here to make for a satisfying resolution even outside of the major fights, but I guess we're done now, so we can't have the kind of complicated and incisive ending I was hoping for. Oh well. I can live with a series that had some good arcs, even if that leaves my feelings on it thoroughly mixed as it sputters to a stop.

So, before I get started, yes, this season was really good. It's Link Click, and the gripping game of cat-and-mouse being played was as good as the likes of Summer Time Rendering and other series that pull off this kind of push and pull with aplomb. I recommend watching this season, but I'm going to be spending much of this review criticizing where I think it falls short, particularly compared with S1, so I wanted to lay this all out first.

There are a few things holding this season back from something I would call truly great. Its reliance on one narrative throughline means we ... spend a great deal of time with these characters in this setting fighting this battle. In fact, we revisit the same moments over and over again from different perspectives and with different information, which does a lot to inform the scenes, but lends itself to much slower pacing as we retrace our steps and explain events. The series also doesn't have the kind of subtlety that a series like The Tatami Galaxy does when it comes to giving you hints at something it will explain later. As soon as the characters encounter something that's unexplained, it's made pretty obvious what it is and we have at least a general idea of how it's going to happen. Sometimes that's good since it makes it easier to follow the action and keep up with various moves in a complex environment. Other times, it ends up making the backtracking feel excessive and unnecessary, and especially when some of the concepts here are a little more opaque and difficult to parse, it seems like they could have spent the time elsewhere and been more effective. So there's a lot of hit and miss with the direction of the narrative.

The other factor that affects the story is the characters involved, particularly the antagonists and new side characters that are introduced. Some of them are particularly well set-up and interesting, some feel like they're just there to evoke maximum sympathy (they don't exactly leave you guessing), and some feel... inconsistent. I don't mind having a nice villainous villain, but one of the main ones in this story seemed to jump from cold, careful and calculating to over-the-top emotional and impetuous. The antagonists are clearly damaged people, and while that works pretty well for one of them, I can't say the same for the other, and since a lot of the plot of this season is driven by the latter, it's a bit underwhelming where we end up with him.

But, like I said at the start, I think this season does more than enough right to deserve a recommendation, including paving the way for events to come in the next season. It's not up to the standard of S1, where I think the emotional beats just hit harder and yield more interesting and consistent individual narratives with solid themes as connective tissue, but it still manages to dig deeper on the abilities of our protagonists and confront them with someone who is ready and willing to misuse their gifts in sharp contrast to them. It's a good direction to take the series, I just wish we got more out of the experience.

It was a short season, but this surprised and delighted me.

While the various short arcs felt disconnected (especially episode 5.5), the finale really brought the whole experience together as it found ways to intertwine the take-aways from each arc. The show eased us into the fantastical concept with its first two episodes, which felt a little lighter than the rest of the series while hinting at something more sinister and dangerous operating in the background.

The show then transitions into a set of episodes that shifts perception both of the characters and the audience. It's not so much that it throws us into the deep end, ... but rather that the aim shifts from trying to acquire something by peeking into the past to trying to reconcile with the past. It's a devastating set of three episodes that is my favorite material from the series so far. The focus on the words unsaid, often leaving us with just how the various recipients respond to those words rather than the words themselves, was powerful and hit harder as the arc came to its natural conclusion. It also gave us some important insights into Cheng Xiaoshi, who struggles with the curse of foreknowledge as he forms connections in the worlds he enters, and the potential pitfalls of his actions as Lu Guang warns him about altering the past.

The rest of the season is a run-up to a dramatic conclusion. It's not so much about the focuses of each arc - a child abducted and a girl attacked - but rather on the consequences of either actively trying to intervene or accidentally altering the past. Even good intentions can have terrible consequences. I very much enjoyed how the season came together in the end, even if I think turning this into a more fantastical battle of wits between characters with various abilities ends up taking a little away from the more grounded elements of the show (yes, I recognize how that sounds in a show involving a person who teleports into the past and possess the bodies of others). It's not that it doesn't make sense, especially since the premise of the show involves a similarly fantastical set of elements, but the show does lose a little something by introducing an out-and-out villain into the mix, even if it does lead to a pretty harrowing scene to round out the season.

Overall, I think there's a lot to love here. I think I would have liked S1 even more if it had stayed focused on these smaller arcs rather than jumping into the big one by the end, but it's hard to argue with a solid cliffhanger.

This movie is trying to do a lot in almost 40 minutes, and while I think it does a good job telling a pretty evocative story with marvelous visuals, I don't think it does justice to the characters with the limited time it has.

There's something deeper here for each of the leads, something concrete that would have been easy to latch onto since all these characters are close to death in different ways, and yet we barely get to explore more than a surface level understanding of where they're coming from before credits roll. It doesn't help that much of the interactions are deadpan, ... so even though that makes certain moments pop, it leaves the rest feeling a little drained of emotion, and moments that could have been huge sometimes feel strange or even suggestive of a pretty horrific scene (e.g. dropping a certain suitcase off at a certain person's door at the end with no note or explanation).

I think the concept here was interesting, even if the execution leaves something to be desired. Maybe fewer characters would have helped. Maybe splitting the focus of the plot less. Maybe just not with the whole help a ghost plot that just ends without much actual resolution. Honestly, the more I think about this one, the more it goes down in my estimation, but it stays a mixed bag for me.

This episode was pretty good, but nothing too special for this series. If anything, it almost feels a bit outlandish, focusing on a love story that's sweet at its core, but executed in a way that makes it feel like it comes out of some martial arts story. It's not bad that the show is branching out a bit, even if it means it's trying to do a plot that makes less sense the more I think about it, and one that leaves a couple of loose threads that make me wonder why they had certain plot elements in the first place.

Still, this is Link ... Click, and it includes some surprisingly solid fight scenes and has a decently satisfying ending. It may not be the most memorable thing this series has produced, but it has some swagger, and if you enjoy the season, it's worth watching.

Kind of wish I'd watched this before the final episode, since that's a much more effective capstone for the series, but given that this is just an extra episode bundled with the fifth volume of the manga, I can't hold that against it. This very much has the same things going for it as the rest of the series: solid comedy, a lot of references to various publishers, and some great meta moments involving character effects. It's not doing anything to stand out from the rest of its series, but it doesn't have to, so I'm happy to send it off with this episode.

While this isn't one of my favorite anime comedies, it's one that struck a chord with me nonetheless.

I think the cast worked together very well. Some of the characters were certainly a little tropey, but the show often subverted or called them out in fun and interesting ways. The cast didn't really grow over the course of the series so much as they just found new and interesting ways to explore the world and find humor in it, and that works just fine for me. That being said, I didn't think the show made the most out of the characters' occupation, since we barely got ... to experience their rakugo. I would have liked to have spent a little more time watching their actual sets and not just the jokes they had at the end. There's a risk in doing that, since it means focusing on single characters for a longer stretch of time, but having the rakugo serve as window dressing for the sketches felt a bit weak.

Speaking of the humor, there were always such a wide variety of jokes coming at us so fast that I couldn't help but laugh, even when some of them went over my head due to localization. The more attention I paid to a given episode, the more enjoyment I tended to get out of it despite said localization, particularly as the show regularly included a great deal of subtle details in its scenes (I'm sure I missed plenty). I do think the show sometimes runs its jokes into the ground (I love puns, but it often just kept going well past the point that they were funny), but each sketch was different enough that I can't say I ever found myself wanting for something new and distinct.

There are two things I found myself loving from the series that elevate it a bit. First, the series really does come full circle from episode 1 to 13 without too much in the way of referencing itself or retreading old ground. Most comedies can't pull that off, and despite the fact that it's a zany narrative, it does actually feel like we reach an endpoint... before the OVA, of course. Second, I think this series handles its meta moments and references very well. It doesn't belabor the latter and it carves out its own identity in the former, finding lots of ways to chastise its creators and itself along the way.

It's not ground-breaking, but it's an enjoyable watch start to finish.

As a manga fan, I knew what to expect with this one, but it's always nice to see Ufotable pop off and they most definitely did here, particularly in their first and last two episodes. I don't think they stood up to the best-animated shows last year, but this season has enough powerfully animated moments (including two in the finale that were both pretty awesome) that I have no doubt this season will be a strong contender this year.

That being said, this is still Demon Slayer. It's still narratively just OK (more basic than usual across much of this arc), the characters are hit or ... miss depending upon your tastes, and while the animation ranges from good to incredible, it trends more towards the former than the latter. Ufotable is bound to up the ante for the final three movies. Still, the season is far from a bust, paving the way to the final arc with some pretty strong insights into a few lesser known Hashira (particularly Giyu and Gyomei), and giving us enough insight into their dynamics with the leads to have some sense of how they will interact in the coming fights. That's enough to elevate it in my book.