Donate some of it to charity.

I have stopped watching it but back when I did, I started watching from season 1 episode 1 just fine. You can probably do the same.

I picked up Time-stop Ugly Old Man thanks to the discussion threads from @themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com.

This shit is peak comedy.

It’s nice to see a fellow fan. I’ve always find it a pity that top-tier anime like Medalist get overlooked / underwatched by the general anime community.

I’m glad there are people like you who are willing to give them a chance.

I know these recommendations are uncalled for, but I think you may enjoy these anime too:

Girls Band Cry - Nina (the protagonist) is an idiot unlike Inori, and the anime is about music instead of sports, but I find that their stories are quite similar.

Umamusume: Cinderella Gray - The similarity here is more straightforward, with both being sports anime.

Machu and Nyaan’s story

Yeah that’s where my interest is too, but they keep not doing anything with it so far

If this is your first foray into Gundam, I think Witch from Mercury may be more your cup of tea.

Past Seasons

I completed two anime over the past week. As usual, top-rated shows do not disappoint.

Grand Blue was good dumb fun. The slapstick humour was on point and got me laughing my ass off many times. I am glad I picked it up right before season 2 airs.

Easy 9 / 10

While watching Girls Band Cry, I had an epiphany: this is, in fact, a sports anime. The “sport” here just happened to be making music.

Think about it:

It has all the makings of a sports anime: main characters being heavily disadvantaged, them having tragic backstories, strong rival(s), numerous other obstacles; but despite all that, they persevered.

But if we take it one step further, a lot of these stories of sports teams or bands are typical of start-ups. It’s just that the space are they in is sports / music.

Anyway, stories like Girls Band Cry never fail to tug at my heartstrings. Despite being a dumbass, Nina’s personality makes me (and everyone else) want to root for her. Same goes for the other band members with their backstories. This show knows how to get you to connect with its characters.

There’s not much I can add besides saying that this anime is absolute cinema. 10 / 10

P.S. I enjoyed their songs; now Hokago Tea Time has a challenger. I haven’t watch much anime with bands, but my current ranking is as such:

1. Hokago Tea Time (K-On) - Don’t Say Lazy is the GOAT. Let’s Go and Sweet Bitter Beauty Song are pretty good too
2. Togenashi Togeari (Girls Band Cry) - Void is solid
3. Kessoku Band (Bocchi the Rock) - No songs particularly stood out / fit my taste

(Not including Girls Dead Monster because it has been quite a while since I watched Angel Beats or listened to their songs)

P.P.S. Perhaps it’s because I’m obsessed with Umamusume lately, but why do so many of these band names sound like horse names?!

Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray surprised me. I didn’t expect to like it as I tried to watch the first Umamusume a couple of times and couldn’t get past episode 2. Will watch Part 2.

That was my experience with Pretty Derby too. Thanks to Cinderella Gray, I gave it one more chance but didn’t watch by release order - and finally got into it.

Please try starting from Pretty Derby season 2 directly, and try at least 2 episodes before deciding whether to drop it or not. It has a significantly higher rating than the first season for a reason: the story is just that good.

Note that although it is the second season, you can watch it as a standalone show.

This Season

Watched (or will watch) till completion

will only talk about full anime seasons (i.e. no OVAs, no shorts)

Gundam GQuuuuuuX

I see people complaining that the show progresses too quickly. Personally, the breakneck pace means that I didn’t have a chance of grow bored of it.

My only “real” complaint is the

Umamusume: Cinderella Gray

Peak story-telling and drama. Never could I have imagined that anthropomorphised horse-racing would get so exciting and emotional.

It definitely deserves to be the highest-rated new anime of the season on tracking sites like AniList and MyAnimeList.

It is also a contender for best sports anime of all time IMO.

Cinderella Gray would easily be the anime-of-the-season for me, if not for another anime airing this season that belongs among the GOATs.

The Apothecary Diaries season 2

I have mentioned a few times that I ruined the viewing experience for myself by reading the manga. But even with this nerf, it still doesn’t change how well the story was presented.

One thing I have wondered since season 1 is why its target demographic is seinen. IMO suspense is one of those genres that cater to all age groups and genders.

Season 2 made the reason apparent. Season 1 teased the conspiracies and politics, but season 2 brought them out in full force. It reminds me heavily of Vinland Saga and other Gundam-like shows.

The only reason I have not declared Apothecary Diaries to be AOTS is because it has not finish airing, and I am very particular about the climaxes and endings of shows.

Cinderella Gray had a strong ending, so it has to at least match that.

Notable Drops

i.e. watched more than a few episodes

Witch Watch

It can be pretty funny at times. However, the slice-of-life-focused episodes got too slow and boring for me.

To Be Hero X

It had the potential to be anime of the season with the insane plot twists and conspiracy. Unfortunately, it lost me at the Lucky Cyan arc. A standard superhero rise-to-fame story is too boring for me.

Plan to watch

I have heard good things about the shows below, so I am planning to try one episode out for each of them.

• Apocalypse Hotel
• Ninja and Assassin under one roof
• Rock is a Lady’s Modesty

Good on you for playing the game.

I rerolled for Fine Motion and Super Creek for quite a few hours, got salty that I can’t get both of them even after so many tries, and ragequited and uninstalled the game.

For what I’ve heard, the game is rather difficult, which means having to sink an ungodly amount of time or - given that it is gacha - money into it, neither of which I have sufficient of.

Personally, I will try to support them in some other way.

I am glad the last race here turned out the way it did. If Oguri stayed winning the whole time, the show would turn stale real quick.

That’s why we don’t have Umamusume anime centered on Symboli Rudolf, or why Superman shows are hard to make. When people know that you are unbeatable, they would find it boring.

Regardless of the way it ended, the race still delivered on the hype as usual. The ending of this last episode also set the anime up nicely for future arcs, with rivals in the form of Tamamo Cross, Dicta Striker and the foreign horse.

Thankfully, there’s only a one-season break before part 2 of Cinderella Gray; I can’t wait to see more of Oguri. This is the only Umamusume anime I found to be on par with Pretty Derby season 2.

On a side note, Legend Changer is the latest song that I’m obsessed with. I thought there’s no Umamusume song that can surpass the peak that is Umapyoi Densetsu. But then I discovered Legend Changer and fell in love with it instantly.

I know the tradition is to play Umapyoi Densetsu as the ending song of the last episode for Umamusume anime, but it would be cool if they switch it up with Legend Changer. They have already started changing their formula for story-telling - from the moe-cuteness of Pretty Derby to the more intense drama of Cinderella Gray. They might as well embrace the change all the way by updating their signature ending song.

Banner:

@rikka@ani.social

deleted by creator

The average number of pins left after they bowl? Their number of wins? Number of strikes?

Bodycount?😈

They are all ladies?

While taking a look at my AniList stats, I noticed some amazing numbers:

About time someone acknowledges that these characters straight-up have superpowers.

Nakamura (the writer) has been cooking, doing plenty of set-up for a future Yamato household arc.

The obvious approach is for Rentarou to zing with Miss Naddy’s younger sister and rescue her from the abusive family. However, knowing Nakamura, it will probably be something badshit again.

Next Season

for rikka to track

Sequels

Dan Da Dan season 2 - needs no introduction

My Dress-Up Darling season 2 - fun romcom

Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus - At this point, I’m wondering: what does rascal dream of??

Grand Blue season 2 - I’m still checking out season 1, but there’s a decent likelihood that I will be continuing with season 2

New Shows

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity - Heard about it. Shall give it one episode.

Turkey! Time to Strike - Given how good Medalist and Umamusume: Cinderella Gray have been recently, I’m going a give another random sports anime a shot.

Past Seasons

I completed Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 last week, and I’m glad that it’s as good as season 1.

As with similar shows, JJK’s story got darker / more brutal in later seasons; I actually like it better this way. The twists are also really something.

I still have complaints about the show though:

• the second half of the season - especially episodes 13 to 15 - involves more exposition, which is really just poor scriptwriting / directing / whatever you call it. “Show, don’t tell”.
• there’s no more Juju Stroll. These small segments at the end of each episode in season 1 are so cute and funny. I understand that they don’t fit the darker and more serious mood of season 2, but I miss them.
• it became too predictable. I know that the writer is capable of introducing plot twists; I wish that they would do so more liberally. Otherwise,

It still deserves a 9 / 10 like before though, so it is entering my Peak Shounen list.

In the ‘Medium’ difficulty category, OpenAI’s o4-mini-high model scored the highest at 53.5%.

This fits my observation of such models. o4-mini-high is able to help me with 80-90% of the problems at work. For the remaining problems, it would come up with a nonsensical solution and no matter how much I prompt it, it would tunnel-vision on that specific approach. It could never second guess itself and realise that its initial solution is completely off the mark, and try an entirely differently approach. That’s where I usually step in and do the work myself.

It still saves me time with the trivial stuff though.

I can’t say the same for the rest of the LLMs. They are simply no good at coding and just waste my time.

What’s considered “older” anime?