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Dated 13 September 2022: I guess that's why Yofukashi no Uta is a noitaminA show

Nazuna
Not sure if gap moé.

I generally expect more from anime airing in the noitaminA block. It's not always a clear indicator of quality, as there have been a fair number of noitaminA shows that seemed "undeserving" of the designation, but they do seem to be better more often than not. In the case of Yofukashi no Uta (Call of the Night), I have read some of the manga because I enjoyed the author's previous work, Dagashi Kashi, but I can't claim to have been a huge fan.

Seri
What's a nice girl like you doing in an alley at night?

The Yofukashi no Uta anime adaptation, though, is really well done. The visuals, the music, and Tenchan's characterization of Nazuna are all top-notch. (Haruka DeTomaso Pantera also appears in the anime, and Sawashiro Miyuki is reportedly joining the cast as well.) There's honestly not much about the show's ostensible plot that I especially care about, but each episode continues to impress me with the execution. It's possible I merely failed to fully appreciate the manga, but Call of the Night might also deserve to be one of those examples where an anime adaptation improves upon its source material.

Dated 2 April 2019: Is this Saekano picture obscene? The answer may surprise you

Vaio SX14
Yeah, it's pretty red.

Before I get into it, I need to provide a bit of background. The lock screens of all my computers and mobile devices are pictures of whatever they happened to be named. For example, the lock screen of my old Android phone that I designated MIYU had a picture of its namesake from My-HiME. The laptop named Kaede has a picture of the corresponding Cinderella Girl on its lock screen. So, anyway, I recently bought a red Vaio laptop (probably because of Evangelion, to be honest). Vaio, if you haven't heard, isn't a Sony property anymore, although their computers are still made in Japan. And I can certainly see the lineage connecting this Vaio SX14 to the Sony Vaio Z2 (VPCZ2390X Model PCG-41313L) which I got in 2012.

Utaha
Doesn't even bother using a mouse.

Anyway, you're probably here because of the post's clickbait title and wondering where the fuck the obscenity is. Well, I'm getting to that. If you've watched Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata, you may recall that Kasumigaoka Utaha bangs out her work on a red laptop (which survives quite a bit of abuse that no Vaio I've ever owned could possibly withstand, incidentally). Naturally, I've named my new red laptop Utaha. However, it's got a 4K display, and the lack of sufficiently satisfactory Utaha pictures at that resolution has led me to use a picture of her rival, Eriri, on its lock screen instead for the time being. I can understand if you're feeling sort of judgmental about this, but at least I'm willing to cop to it, okay.

Dated 4 February 2019: Yakusoku no Neverland is going to produce this season's Queen of Cardio

Emma
Emma has some hair.

I wasn't planning on watching Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland), but the Anime War Crimes Tribunal guy thought it was good, and it does have that noitaminA credibility (such as it is) attached to it, so I figured I'd give it a try. Through four episodes, it's all right, and benefits from its mostly serious subject matter and mysterious setting. Neverland is based on an ongoing manga that already has 12 volumes, though, so spoilers are plenty available, and it's just a matter of time before I stumble upon one accidentally, I'm sure. I assume this also means the anime will end without any real conclusion, unless the manga happens to have discrete stopping points.

Sister Krone
Oh, I like her.

Honestly, I don't think Yakusoku no Neverland is quite as clever as I think it wants to be, but it is at least refreshing to see non-idiot anime children think their way out of a jam. All the older kids with prominent roles are fairly precocious, and while we're not talking Ender's Game levels of genius, there is some thoughtful planning to tackle the constraints facing their plan. There is also a lot of running in this show, and it's all been animated in a satisfying sort of way. Running is one of those activities that loses me if animated in some sort of "uncanny valley" wrong way, so I'm pleased at the way the characters convincingly haul ass. In a relatively weak season (compared to, say, Winter 2018 for example), The Promised Neverland is an interesting and serious enough departure from typical generic anime that it's worth your time to chase it down.

Dated 15 January 2018: Everybody relax, it's not as if they're tearing each other's clothes off in Koi wa Ameagari no You ni

Masami
Masami does not come across quite as lame in the anime as he does in the manga.

Right up front, you should know Koi wa Ameagari no You ni (Love Is Like After the Rain) is about a teenage girl who falls in love with her 45-year-old manager at the family restaurant where she works part-time. Nevertheless, it is not as—as the kids say—"problematic" as you might think, maybe because it is seinen instead of shoujo. (This last part is not a joke. If you've read a lot of shoujo, you know the genre revels in "problematic" developments.) Assuming the anime basically follows the manga, I think we can expect something much closer to Sweetness and Lightning than, uh...actually, I can't think of a show off the top of my head that follows through with this sort of pairing. (This assumes Tsumugi and her teacher did not started tearing each other's clothes off at some point in the Amaama to Inazuma manga.)

Akira
There is a lot of glaring in this show.

Rather, Koi wa Ameagari no You ni offers beautiful animation (assuming you're fine with the elongated character designs) with solid WIT STUDIO production values and the potential for the noitaminA block to potentially mean something again. That is, you don't necessarily need to dodge the show if the premise makes you uncomfortable. (Likewise, if you find the premise titillating, expect to be disappointed.) In a season chock full of so many good shows already, I can't claim After the Rain qualifies as a "must see" by any means, but it is at least worthy of more consideration by potential viewers who may have prematurely dismissed it based on preconceptions.

Dated 18 December 2017: I dropped seven shows during the autumn 2017 season

I wasn't planning on dropping Kekkai Sensen & Beyond. I rather enjoyed the first season, but I found the second season just mostly all right. It's not that the quality dropped, necessarily, but rather I discovered I really did prefer the first season's anime-original plotline about White a lot more than all the various canned adventures each week. Go figure. Even sloppy Chain antics weren't enough to keep me interested, alas. I watched eight episodes and gave it a 3.64 out of 5.

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou (Girls' Last Tour) seems pretty good, and is well regarded on the Twitter, but it just isn't my sort of thing. I watched two episodes and scored it 3.43 out of 5.

Inuyashiki is...not very good. It has some good stuff in it, but it's an awful show that aspires to be good, the more I think about it. It has interesting ideas, but it would take a long time to explain all the problems I have with the series—much more time than I feel interested in giving it. Four episodes, 3.43 out of 5. I get the feeling it would score much worse if I ever re-watched those same episodes again, though.

The iDOLM@STER Side M does all the right iDOLM@STER things and appears to be a worthy addition to the franchise's anime lineup, but I'm not quite so interested in these particular characters. It probably could have kept me watching with a lot more 765 cameos. I watched four episodes (five, counting Episode 00). 3.00 out of 5.

Niwatori
CHICKEN IS TOP BIRD.

Juuni Taisen lost me by killing off the only character I liked. Worse, I had no interest in any of the other characters at all, and the entire show was pretty underwhelming for a battle royale. I also would have had no idea NisiOisiN was involved had I not been informed. Dude must have phoned this one in. It's not even bad in original or interesting ways. I just didn't give a shit and never felt as if I was given any reason to. Seven episodes, 2.86 out of 5.

I dropped Blend S after one episode and wanted to quit halfway through. That one fucker was too annoying. 2.00 out of 5.

I knew Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. (Our love has always been 10 centimeters apart.) was going to irritate me at some point. I didn't expect it to fall off a cliff, though. Three episodes, 1.89 out of 5. Its 1.53 standard deviation is easily the highest of any series I watched this season.

Dated 22 May 2017: Only one character remains on the Saekano balance beam

Megumi
The face of a Best Girl trapped in a harem comedy with a loathsome protagonist.

Despite some very questionable components, I liked the first season of Saekano a decent amount. Unfortunately, its Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata♭ sequel (How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend Flat) isn't working for me. All of the problems I have with the show were present during the first season, but either the execution was better or I was simply more willing to accept its shortcomings, something I acknowledged when I blogged about it. Ultimately, it's Potato-kun being a shitbag and the show's proselytization of the Otaku Virtues that kill my enthusiasm for Saekano Flat. These are the sort of bits that can sort of work from a meta perspective when lightly used, but the heavier a show relies on these tropes, the less meta it feels and the more bona fide it becomes. And then you just end up with regular ol' tsundere bullshit and a harem comedy gravity well which pulls inversely proportional to its hold on reality.

Utaha
I bet those boxes are empty.

What I'm left with is loathing for Potato-kun and open disdain for every other character on the show with the sole exception of Megumi, who has rocketed so far ahead in the show's Best Girl standings that she can almost assuredly boat race the rest of the competition from here on out. And this is nearly entirely a consequence of her (thus far, through six episodes and one pool-romp prologue) refusal to go along with Tomoya's high-intensity idiocy. That said, I'm still not quite as hostile to the show as these couple of paragraphs might suggest, so it's not as if I intend to drop it. I'm just disappointed Saekano Flat keeps tumbling into avoidable pitfalls. The show is unworthy of its animation and its Misaki Kurehito superlovely character designs. I guess it does deserve the glare of displeased long-hair Megumi, though.

Dated 24 October 2016: Autumn 2016 progress report: So far, so good

Shizuru, Kinoa, Kogane, and Raijoudou
Do not question Shizuru's methods.

Bubuki Buranki: Hoshi no Kyojin leads the shows I'm watching this season. I was a bit skeptical about bringing Kaoruko back to the show after being absent for essentially all of the first season, but I think it works with her as a mouthy antagonist. I particularly hope we'll get to see her get stomped by Reoko.

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Dated 25 September 2016: Looking forward to autumn 2016 anime

Kogane
Who's ready for more BBK/BRNK faces?

There are a surprising number of shows I'm interested in scheduled for autumn 2016. Most of these are sequels of some sort, but there are a few new properties that have caught my eye. Notably, I've yet to do any concerted investigating into the upcoming season, so the following only include titles that I noticed at some point and deemed worthy of preemptively annotating in my anime spreadsheet.

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