The front of Nanao's uniform reminds me of a Heinz bottle.

Adding onto this post about shows airing during the Autumn 2020 cours, my early top show is Munou na Nana (Talentless Nana) which had a surprisingly solid first episode, albeit one that relied on breaking from expectations, so you're better off avoiding spoilers and watching the first episode blind. Unfortunately, it looks as if the source manga isn't rated highly, so potentially the story doesn't fare so well later on. More optimistically, perhaps the low scores are merely due to problems the anime adaptation can fix.

The horror of an anime bed made of concrete.

I'm more pessimistic about Maou-jou de Oyasumi (Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle) which is one of those shows with a neat idea that runs the risk of wearing out its welcome if it turns out to only offer one basic joke that it repeats ad infinitum. I think the source manga remains well liked, so maybe I should have more faith it its potential for creativity.

I don't even know why Inuyasha himself is a dog except that it's in his name.

Despite being almost entirely ignorant about InuYasha, I'm reasonably sure its sequel (spinoff?) will probably be at least sort of good thanks to having a respectable pedigree. Kyoukai no Rinne is actually the only Takahashi Rumiko thing I've ever seen, but that was pretty good. Her other works are popular, and I remember people being nuts for InuYasha back in the day, so Hanyou no Yashahime (Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon) at least has odds in its favor.

Mi casa es Tsukasa.

Tonikaku Kawaii (TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You) also has a pedigree, but not one quite as good. It has probably already referenced its creator's other works a few times by now unbeknownst to me, though. The first two episodes were fine, but not outstanding, and I'm already quite tired of Potato-kun's penchant for freaking out. It's one of those "comic" behaviors that isn't as objectionable in manga form, but doesn't translate well to anime. I'm also worried a bunch of wacky cockblockers will move in with the couple. In fact, I can probably think of a whole lot of different ways this could go wrong, even though I think the manga remains popular. There are a lot of shows this season, so I'm not going to be as patient with it as I might have been just a few months ago.

The robots are named after flowers, but I don't know if there is any meaning to it.

Studio Trigger's Gainax heritage basically guarantees I'll give any of its shows a try. They haven't all been hits, but I'll generally find at least something to enjoy. DARLING in the FRANXX is Studio Trigger's two-cours science fiction partnership with A-1 Pictures featuring giant robots and lots of sexual allegories. The show is not at all subtle, with wall-to-wall metaphors about marriage, intercourse, orgasm, infidelity, and polyandry. And that's just the first three episodes. Unfortunately, it also stars an exceptionally dull teenage boy (because of course it does). At least he isn't a whiny brat, I guess. (That role was already taken by one of the supporting cast.)

Box in box.

Surprising no one, I'm sure, I imported the recently released Neon Genesis Evangelion Blu-ray box from Japan. This was pretty much a guaranteed buy from me on general principle even though I'm arguably more on the casual end of the fandom these days. Hell, I don't even know if it's technically still called Shin Seiki Evangelion. I seem to remember some rumor that Gainax or Khara or whatever entity owns the property was adopting the English title officially. (There's probably a wiki article getting to the truth of this on EvaGeeks.) Anyway, with the U.S. dollar so strong against the Japanese yen, this was actually quite affordable. I also got it from Amazon.co.jp in only three days which basically left me slack-jawed in amazement. It even shipped via DHL, like all the crap Asuka sent to Misato's apartment and then never used. What a world.

It does say "Neon Genesis" right there, you know.

As far as the unboxing itself, there are surely better examples on NicoVideo and YouTube with far better production values and narration than I'm willing to put forth. Here are some shots of my set, which presumably looks the same as all the other ones, unless I missed out on some sort of crazy cross-promotional pack-in I should be gnashing my teeth in dismay about:

A book and stuff.

Discs fanned out.

The discs play just fine on an American Blu-ray player.

No subtitles, of course. Well, there are Japanese subtitles for the hearing-impaired.

And, of course, the best ass shot of all time.

Anyway, it's totally worth it if you're an Eva fan. It's a far cry from the horrid quality many of us suffered through when we became fans in the first place.

Raising Heart gets to be in the show, but Bardiche didn't have a single line.

As long as they keep making more Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha anime I'll keep watching them, providing the shows are not complete shite. I'll even keep watching even if Nanoha and Fate aren't in the show anymore, even if it barely qualifies as mahou shoujo anymore, and even if it stops being lyrical. Once a franchise I'm following gets enough momentum, I'll pretty much keep watching new installments. Well, providing the anime continues to hit above the Cosprayers Line, that is.

Nanoha doesn't always tell Fate everything.

This is pretty much how I ended up watching all of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ViVid. It's not good by any means, but it's particularly bad either. Every episode of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ViVid seems content to underachieve with bloop singles, never swinging for the fences like its early predecessors. Unfortunately, I can remember approximately fuck all from the previous installment, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (it's been eight years!) and I don't read any of the Nanoha manga, so I didn't know hardly any of the ViVid characters at all.

"I said, I, I, ah ah ah, I, I want the knife."

It turns out it's not actually necessary to know any of the Nanoha ViVid characters, because there's also no plot and the anime doesn't have an ending. In fact, the anime didn't even try to fake a non-ending ending; it just drops off where I presume it left off in the manga and follows up with a low-effort clip show summarizing most of the Einhart (Einhard, whatever) moments from the 12-episode run, pretty much for no reason.

Ass shot.

Speaking of whom, Einhart starts the show as the putative villain. She uses ANCIENT BELKA magic and picks fights with random people. With the potential for DARK MAMIKO in the wings, so far so good. But then she's hit with the most powerful attack in the Nanoha universe, Friendship, and the series decides to coast from there and cruise through the Onsen Episode, Training Sequence, and Tournament Arc checkpoints.

The Chantez Series? They've been completed?

Training sequences were the bane of StrikerS, and aren't much better in ViVid, but at least they don't seem to drag out endlessly. Unfortunately, essentially none of the tournament battles in Nanoha ViVid save the Corona v. Einhart bout mattered to me because I didn't know any of the characters and thus didn't care who won or lost. But the ViVid tournament arc doesn't even finish during the course of the season. I suppose if and when someone scrapes together some more dirty Nanoha money, perhaps we'll see the end of the tournament in a split cour. We'll still need some sort of plot for the show, though. Is it too late for Einhart to start ripping people's heads off? What if someone kills her kitten?

Hachiken's actually about to have his mom's home cooking for the first time in ages.

I feel as if I watched too many shows last season. However, there also isn't anything that I regret not dropping. Does that mean the winter 2014 season was particularly good or does it mean I'm not making very good use of my spare time? Maybe it's both. There were quite a few good shows, or at least okay shows with lots of good moments.

The best team in the best show.

I'm undecided as to whether or not the final two episodes of GIRLS und PANZER qualify as part of the winter 2013 season. They were delayed from the autumn 2012 season and should probably belong there with the rest of the series, but then again they did actually air late in winter 2013. There are only 40-some minutes of new material, but that's more than Teekyuu, so it arguably has as much right to be here as the various two-minute shows. Whatever the case, these two final episodes of GIRLS und PANZER were far and away superior to any of the other shows from winter 2013.

It's clenched buttocks all the way down.

I have no idea how Vividred Operation will wrap itself up in its remaining three or four episodes. Seeing as how it's still introducing and developing the relationships among the characters, it will either feel really rushed or we'll be blessed with a second cour of clenching butts in tiny short shorts. It's possible my expectations are a little too high for this show, now that I think about it. Either way, this is still far and away the best show of the season, even if Princess Kraehe never performs any ballet.

To be honest, Rei is taking this relatively well.

With apologies to ani-nouto for stealing its shtick, let's give this a try.

I'm going to start calling her Cure Sam Spade and hope it catches on.

In re Dokidoki! Precure episode two:

• What are you doing? She'll be fine. I'm pretty sure Cure Sam Spade could survive a fall from orbit.
• Cure White Lie.
• I'm pretty sure introducing gold and spreading it around a closed mercantilist economy with no external trading partners will only produce inflation. And apparently it also kills swallows.

Vividred Operation should just frame an entire episode
with the POV centered between Rei's thighs.

In re Vividred Operation episode five:

• When this baby gets to 200%, you're going to see some serious shit.
• Why didn't you take her to a hospital?
• I'm pretty sure Akane is just using this as an excuse to continue stripping her naked.
• Rei's life doesn't suck enough. It should be more like...Kotoura's life. Well, like Kotoura's life before it got better.
• I'm also pretty sure that bird is Lieutenant Hayase. [P.S. Spoilers.]

Does that mean they're not pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend anymore?

In re Oreshura episode six:

• Oreshura, adding a new girl is almost never a good idea.
• This must be the episode where they couldn't spend any money.
• This girl kinda sucks.
• Fight the power.
• This is a pretty lackluster episode.
• Chiwa still sucks.
• I'm going to be really disappointed if there isn't more bullying this episode.
• This girl actually sucks more than Chiwa.
• It's kinda comical how little effort the bodyguard has to expend to keep Eita away.
• Does this mean that everyone is now aware of Eita's chuuni past? I'm not exactly clear as to how that all played out, and I'm not familiar with the corresponding sequence of the original light novel.