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So, we’re just starting in on some new series, while still dragging out some others. Overall, the previous three months were quiet, with no new big surprises for us, watching-wise. That said, while this is technically in descending order of recommendation, everything here is very good, and gets a recommendation from me.

Vinland Saga — We’re still in the second half of the first series, though we’re pretty far in, and the plot is simultaneously unexpected, and inherently logical. Really well written, and well done, with a host of interesting characters. The history is also very good… other than those massive swords.

One Piece — Notably, the new live action series. The anime is waaaay too padded for me to suffer through. This is the best anime adaptation I know of, and while I have some production quibbles, much of the casting is perfect, and the writing is very good and well paced.

Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul — The body horror, the body horror…. Woo, this one got pretty gruesome in a few places. But, we’ve finally seen the interstitial movie, which is good and is worth watching. I’m still not sure why they did it as a movie though. At any rate, Made in Abyss still gets a high recommendation, and we’ll be picking up with the second series soon.

To Your Eternity — We’ve gotten a fair way though this now, though there’s plenty to go. It’s being very good, though there are bits that I think could be handled better. At any rate, I don’t think I’ve seen any mention of this one, and it is deserving of a wider audience.

NieR Automata Ver 1.1a — We finished this up shortly after the season began, but then that’s when they finally finished. I’m also very happy to hear there will be a second season, because they did a surprisingly good job with this one. That said, it’s hard to guess where it’s going to go from here….

Ooku — Okay, this was an elaborate production. Alternate history, where a plague wipes out most of the male population of Japan, and then keeps the numbers low after that. It studies the changes in cultural dynamics, and is largely court politics based. As such, it is basically straight samurai drama, just largely gender flipped. The only real problem is this didn’t need to be animated (though the sets might have gotten expensive).

Path to the Peak — A four-episode Pokemon series dealing with the card game. So, real world, more-or-less. Not entirely my thing, but well done, and again, away from the main series, Pokemon keeps getting some really well-produced shorts and series. And I really appreciate that they did call out the CCG here, since all the tropes and such in other productions are definitely based on the video games, so it is overdue.

Jobless Reincarnation — I’m thinking I forgot to mention this one for the previous season it had. At any rate, we’ve moved on to a school arc, and some of the overarching plot seems to be left behind for a more “personal” problem. I can’t say I care too much for how some of the motivation for this was handled, but the writing was good, and it really is feeding into sorting out Rudeus’ personal life, and we do get a new aspect of the overarching plot come in from an unexpected direction.

Eden’s Zero — More turn your brain off fun from the creator of Fairy Tail. The main arc this time did get interesting with time-travel shenanigans, which did a good job with wrapping everything up, and opening up some questions that might actually get answered soonish (at least the minor questions).

Demon Slayers — I think we’re caught up now; we just watched the the Swordsmith Village arc. Again well done; I do wish some of the fighting was a bit less drawn out. That said, there was a lot of variety in what was going on in the action parts, and the overall plot got some important progress, though I’m worried it’ll take forever to play out.

Land of the Lustrous — Finished up the second half of this with the guys. It ended a bit more abruptly than I remembered, and I really hope we’ll get more someday soon. It’s being seen as ‘if Roger Zelazny wrote an anime’. I don’t think this is what such a series would look like, but it’s impossible not to think of his Lord of Light with the series, which is what causes the comparisons.