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So another season has wrapped up, and I got to see the usual mix of old and new, good and bad.

Planetarian — We had a spare time slot on the Thursday session with everyone, and Smudge and I finally showed this short series to the guys. They definitely liked it, and as expected, not a dry eye at the end. It’s really good and deserves a watch.

Golden Kamui — This continues to be an automatic watch for everyone here. In a way, this entire season was more of a diversion, as it’s a long trek north with a turn around south at the end. But the journey is an important one, and the climax for the last couple episodes pays off very well. We’re going to need… one, maybe two more seasons to get this all finished off, and deal with all the characters largely dropped for this arc.

Re: Zero — This continues to be a strong series, even if uncomfortable to watch all to often. The wrap up of the story here finally gets to a few things have been waiting for a while, and Roswaal and a few others get a well-needed kick to stop just living in the past. It was surprising that what kicked the story off wasn’t addressed at all to speak of, but it did spin off to this, and holds together as a story quite well. Now, to do something about Rem….

Journey of Elaina — As mentioned last time, we’re re-watching this with the guys, and are just getting past what we’d seen up to last time. They’ve definitely both been enjoying it, though the unpredictable nature of its tone from one episode to another has bitten us a couple times.

RErideD — Back at Crunchroll Expo 2019, this both looked like it could be interesting, and it was being pushed a bit too forcefully. All four of us have been watching it, and finding it good, but I think we all agree it could have used a bigger budget. Personally, I think another pass through the story would have helped as parts of it don’t seem to flow right, but I’ll agree that the action is hurt by a lack of budget pretty bad too. …Inventive anime story as told on Saturday morning television.

That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime — Smudge had held off introducing me to this one because it does have the problem that the main character is way overpowered, and pretty well undercuts any conflict he’s in. However, the comedic elements certainly work well, and actually serve to keep the series balanced. I’m just starting the second season and enjoying it. I want more of Veldora, the overpowered tsundere-dragon.

Dr. Stone — So, Smudge started me on this near the start of the season, thanks to the new series coming out. I’m still earlyish in the second season of the first series, and it has gotten fairly good. I wasn’t too happy with it at first, partially because of Senkuu’s nonsensical design. And there’s a lot of hyperbole…. But after a rough start, the writing has picked up.

Black Clover — Ugh. This latest season was really unbalanced, with lots recap for padding, and then a couple episodes at the end crammed full to make it to the dramatic break point. (The entire anime industry needs to be force-fed The Last Airbender as an example of how to do recaps.) Asta’s redesign made some sense, but came very suddenly… and yeah, the entire season’s a mess.