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Anime What was the last anime you watched before posting in this thread?

There’s a lot that happened between now and early October, haha, so I think I’ll truncate this to my magical girl series viewings and some other things.

Cardcaptor Sakura, Episodes 6-10
Innocence is such a fleeting thing, isn’t it? The rollercoaster of weirdness that was these last few episodes of Sakura demonstrate this beautifully, and unexpectedly so. In these five episodes alone, we have an expansion of the show’s love triangle (because Tomoyo so obviously has it baaaaaaad for Sakura, haha) into a quadrangle (because even the resident “friendship is dumb and so are you” character isn’t immune to a good ol’ precarious crush, apparently); Sakura nearly falling to a very family-unfriendly death at least twice in a single episode chasing the ghost of her dead mother; a cross-dressing, butter knife-wielding child thief raiding a museum at night in the name restoring their dead father’s honor; and Sakura in a midriff-baring catsuit as one of her costumes, all while in the middle of helping said child thief. Oh, and that scene with Rika (if you’ve seen the manga or the uncut anime, you know what I’m talking about; oof). I can see why the original dubbed version of this got so many edits back in the day… this series isn’t nearly as innocent as it seems!

Spy x Family, Episode 10
Dodgeball episode is best episode, haha! What more is there to say that hasn’t already been said?

Delicious Party Pretty Cure, Episodes 5-6
It’s really interesting how this series is took its sweet time bringing its characters into spotlight, with only Cure Precious and Cure Spicy being formally introduced as of the end of episode six. But actually, I think a part of me kind of likes that! That said, perhaps they could give some of that same care to the Bundoru Gang, yeah? While the inherent danger of the havoc they wreak (messing with people’s food, and with people’s livelihoods if they’re selling that food) does help with the stakes a bit, the writers could do with telegraphing that a bit more, I think, perhaps with some more background character interactions that helped Futari wa push through a similar problem (there’s only so much of the likes of Pisard and Gekidrago that one can stand otherwise) and in this case would help us understand the worth of this food-focused world on a more personal level, I think. Otherwise, aside from Yui with her earnest yet so far fairly typical pink cure charm and Kokone who seems to be following in the footsteps of Yayoi/Cure Peace and Himari/Cure Custard as the shy, socially awkward type (in an endearingly vulnerable and relatable kind of way here), there’s only really increasingly repetitive encounters with the Bundoru Gang to look forward to, all on the same Delicious Fiiiiiiield!!! (<- not sorry, haha) that I suspect won’t be changing for quite some time yet. I look forward to what appears to be a slightly higher-stakes episode with Cure Yum-Yum’s imminent debut in the next episode. But that’ll have to wait a while, since I’m likely going to pause this in favor of Hirogaru Sky! (if and when Crunchyroll simulcasts it) and Futari wa, as there’s only so much Precure that I can reasonably keep up with at a time (speaking of that, see below).

KiraKira☆Pretty Cure A La Mode, Episodes 1-6
The story of how I ended up watching Kira Kira is a long and complicated one; a story that will have to wait for another time, I think. But I will say that I was kind of ticked by the thought of watching two food-themed Precure series back-to-back, and comparing the two to see what one does better than the other, or worse. To make this quick, things that I liked include: 1) Ichika/Cure Whip in the first episode, 2) Himari/Cure Custard in her first episode, 3) Actually, almost everyone in their first episodes (almost), 4) Fairies as villains, 5) Sweets! 6) The live-action “recipe” segments in episode one and at the end of each character’s intro episode, which could’ve been weird and jarring but are surprisingly awesome, and 7) Did I mention sweets? Things that I didn’t like too much or that I’m ambivalent about: 1) The animal motifs, which are cute but feel slightly tacked on and out-of-place as a theme alongside the main sweets theme; is this Precure or Tokyo Mew Mew? 2) Ichika after the first episode, ultimately being rather average personality-wise so far and especially compared to her teammates, 3) Characters staying more in the background than I’d like after their intro episodes, with the exception of the again far less interesting Ichika, 4) Yukari/Cure Macaron, who most certainly fits her motif as a cat but in the least flattering of ways, being aloof in a rather distant rather than endearing way to the point of seeming almost self-centered and disinterested in, you know, the entire point of being a Cure (helping and protecting others), as opposed to just amusing herself, 5) Lack of hand-to-hand combat, which is fine on its face — what’s being a magical girl without some, well, magic, right? — but then this is Precure, and it’s especially jarring from me having watched Futari wa not long before this, and 6) The creeping feeling that the stakes have been kind of low so far in every department — from character development to the overall plot — unless you really, really care about Pekorin, which I don’t, yet. So it’s a mixed big overall, I think; I can already see why this series was so controversial in some circles of the fandom. I’m willing to see where this goes with a few more episodes, at least, but not now; as mentioned above, Hirogaru Sky! awaits and so does the rest of Futari wa.

Do It Yourself!, Episodes 1-6
On the glowing recommendations of @Rockapheller and @Emmy, and driven by my increasing admiration for slice-of-life anime, I went ahead and gave this a shot, and I’m glad that I did. There’s nothing spectacular or paradigm-altering here, but there doesn’t need to be; the charm of the characters and the respect and passion shown for the subject matter are enough to sell me on everything and keep me watching, in the spirit of the best and purest slice-of-life series. In the interest of time, I’ll just say that I agree with most of what @Juliko wrote in her review of the series. That said, I will say that I was expecting something more dramatic to be pushing Serufu and Purin apart rather than “we’re not going to the same school, even though my school is so close to yours that Miss Meow can literally leap into the DIY Club building from there”. Did I miss something in those first few episodes? I mean, I figured that adolescent immaturity played a role in their rift (on Purin’s side, mainly), but I didn’t think that it was quite that petty; yeesh! At least Purin seems to be breaking out of that at least a little bit as of the end of episode six, though. Given this show’s vibes, I’m expecting a happy ending for the two; the key will be how they do it, I think.
 
KiraKira☆Pretty Cure A La Mode, Episodes 1-6
The story of how I ended up watching Kira Kira is a long and complicated one; a story that will have to wait for another time, I think. But I will say that I was kind of ticked by the thought of watching two food-themed Precure series back-to-back, and comparing the two to see what one does better than the other, or worse. To make this quick, things that I liked include: 1) Ichika/Cure Whip in the first episode, 2) Himari/Cure Custard in her first episode, 3) Actually, almost everyone in their first episodes (almost), 4) Fairies as villains, 5) Sweets! 6) The live-action “recipe” segments in episode one and at the end of each character’s intro episode, which could’ve been weird and jarring but are surprisingly awesome, and 7) Did I mention sweets? Things that I didn’t like too much or that I’m ambivalent about: 1) The animal motifs, which are cute but feel slightly tacked on and out-of-place as a theme alongside the main sweets theme; is this Precure or Tokyo Mew Mew? 2) Ichika after the first episode, ultimately being rather average personality-wise so far and especially compared to her teammates, 3) Characters staying more in the background than I’d like after their intro episodes, with the exception of the again far less interesting Ichika, 4) Yukari/Cure Macaron, who most certainly fits her motif as a cat but in the least flattering of ways, being aloof in a rather distant rather than endearing way to the point of seeming almost self-centered and disinterested in, you know, the entire point of being a Cure (helping and protecting others), as opposed to just amusing herself, 5) Lack of hand-to-hand combat, which is fine on its face — what’s being a magical girl without some, well, magic, right? — but then this is Precure, and it’s especially jarring from me having watched Futari wa not long before this, and 6) The creeping feeling that the stakes have been kind of low so far in every department — from character development to the overall plot — unless you really, really care about Pekorin, which I don’t, yet. So it’s a mixed big overall, I think; I can already see why this series was so controversial in some circles of the fandom. I’m willing to see where this goes with a few more episodes, at least, but not now; as mentioned above, Hirogaru Sky! awaits and so does the rest of Futari wa.

Yeah, certain characters receiving more time in the spotlight at the expense of others is unfortunately a pretty common problem with the various Pretty Cure series as a whole. Also, from what I've heard, KiraKira as a season was deliberately made a lot more cutesy and light-hearted, complete with toning down the physical fighting, because apparently parents complained that the fights in the two seasons before that were too scary for small children.
 
I finally got around to seeing the last couple of episodes of "Digimon: Ghost Game".

Now that the series has finished, I will give some thoughts on it. I suppose I should just rip the band-aid off and say that this is without a doubt, one of the worst Digimon animes of all time. After coming off the high that was Adventure:, I had high hopes for this show but despite all the potential of its premise, GG has absolutely squandered it with a rigid episodic structure that lead to a frantic last four episodes where the writers suddenly remembered they needed a plot to finish with - seriously not since Occultic;Nine have I seen characters race through dialogue to cram it all into a scene. The lack of any character arcs leaving the heroes and villains as bland cardboard cutouts who just exist to go through the motions of each episode, also definitely hurt the show in the long run. Overall, if this is the quality that the writers are satisfied with, I'm not sorry that there isn't a new anime being announced to replace GG and they should use the time to reflect on GG's failings.
 
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