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Well, I had gone into this season not expecting much, but there turned out to be some very good new series. There were enough new things that Smudge and did not get to the second season of Fire Hunters, which was the main thing we went into the season anticipating. Of course, there were also a couple that continued, and the Thursday night set with the guys is lagging behind.

Vinland Saga — The change in locale and main cast for the start of season 2 was interesting. We are finally to the point where it gets out of really establishing our new Number 2, and developing the themes that can only work because season 1 exists. Personally, I felt the intro period dragged a little too much

Frieren — We’re somewhere in the middle of the second half/cour of this, and it is continuing to be very good. It’s been feeling a bit more episodic lately, but the main story is continuing behind it all, and is obviously not forgotten, which is good.

Delicious in Dungeon — This was a surprise. This was the big marketing push series of the season, and I expected it to be awful. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. (The Bump of Chicken opening theme was certainly a good sign.) The high concept actually flows out of the plot a lot more naturally than I thought it would, and its been a great dungeon delving story. One thing that really helps, is in too many current fantasy anime, they are self-consciously doing ‘game emulation’ in the story, and that is absent here despite the roots of the premise. So the story is much more natural, the characters and writing have been good, and it has done some really good broadening of scope right at the end of the season.

Apothecary Diaries — I was a bit resistant to this, but Smudge started me on it, and it has been very good. I’m still just entering the second part. To one extent it could be successful just as a sort of murder mystery series in the imperial palace, but Maomao’s character is such as to make it an enjoyable series about her as well as the mysteries.

Star Trek: Prodigy — Smudge and I started this after finding it was now on Netflix. At some point, we’ll want to make sure the guys see it too, but we’ve been going through it ourselves. First, this is (was) a Nickelodeon production, and the age of the intended audience shows. An interesting conceit following from that though is that this is something of an introduction to the Star Trek universe, with the action happening far outside the Federation, and then introducing familiar elements as it goes. For everything its trying to do, its very successful, and we’ve been enjoying the story a lot.

To Your Eternity — Similar to Vinland Saga, we’re in the middle of the second part of this series. The main conflict/action/climax part is obviously getting close, and we’ve been on build up for some time now. The first section of this season managed to be a lot more interesting than I expected thanks to La Tasty Peach, and did not end as I expected. It hadn’t started as I really expected either, and the start of the… post-Uralis section was more what I had been expecting. At any rate, it’s continuing to be well-paced, and delivering on its promises.

Shangri-La Frontier — I liked this enough to start with, but I’ve been warming to it more as it goes on. I wish we’d get a bit more movement on Psyger-0; the stalker bit is really wearing thin for me, and I feel like the plot is not delivering on promises there. But the rest of the main cast has been a lot of fun, the game world lore has been great, and the reveal that the fairly cruel Towa/Pencilgon had fallen for the lore as well was a great character evolution.

Unwanted Undead Adventurer — This is one that Smudge stumbled on and quickly introduced me to, and part of what made this season shine. In some ways it’s a very typical current story, but the primary setup is well done, and naturally propels the rest of the series. It does run into ‘game emulation’ problems as mentioned with Delicious in Dungeon.

Made in Abyss — We finally sat down and figured out which movie was the interstitial one, which was very good. Now the four of us are early in the second series, and we’re getting our weekly dose of body horror. And the body horror has been strong in this one. It’s still a great story, and would most likely be higher in this list if we were a little further in so the current arc had longer to get going.

Daigo: Rescuer in Orange — This continued into the current season, and came to a break point. Still feels like a more ’80s kind of anime. I also think it’d be stronger if it was a bit more like Emergency, with ordinary rescues instead of lots extra dramatic ones needing the top-of-the-top. We have also seen the appropriate hooks into the eventual big plot teased at the first episode.