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I don't dislike Miyafuji anymore, but these two still aren't exactly favorites.
It's been a while since I've watched the first two Strike Witches seasons, but I felt this third season seemed better overall than those previous installments. I also liked it better than the Brave Witches spinoff. Despite this, I'm still not at all prepared to call Strike Witches: Road to Berlin the best season yet even though it sort of has to be by definition. The problem is Road to Berlin still relied on the Neuroi as the primary advesary. This is an unavoidable component of the World Witches canon, but these alien invaders have never been compelling enemies. The witches need to fight somebody, but the battles still feel hollow and the stakes haven't grown as the war has progressed, despite a fair amount of dialogue trying to convince viewers that they have.

That sure is a lot of witches.
Thankfully, Strike Witches 3 at least avoided some of the even less convincing drama that dragged down parts of the first two seasons. Frankly, I rather enjoy the characters more when they're doing silly things in garrison such as in the Strike Witches: 501 Butai Hasshin Shimasu! (Strike Witches: 501st JOINT FIGHTER WING Take Off!) gag anime. This bodes well for next season's World Witches Hasshin Shimasu! (World Witches Take Off!) installment, although I think I would still prefer it use the standard superlovely character designs than the simpler comedy-friendly ones.
Posted in Strike Witches, Strike Witches: Road to Berlin, World Witches Hasshin Shimasu! | Tags: Air Power, Autumn 2020, Characters in Need of Better Shows, Comedy, Ensemble Cast, Fan Service, Girls With Guns, Light Novels, Mecha Musume, Miyuki Sawashiro, Season Conclusion, Season Introduction, Short Shows, Superlovely Character Designs, Tanaka Rie, THRUST VECTORING, war, Winter 2021 | Permanent Link

He had it coming.
Some of the shows I covered in previous posts (1st, 2nd, 3rd) included remakes and sequels or continuations. Well, there are more. Golden Kamuy also resumed this season. It's described as the third season, but really it's just the third cours of series. The anime remains as good as ever, thanks to the strength of the source material. In fact, the anime has improved by thus far avoiding the 3DCG pitfalls that unfortunately distracted from the first cours.

Daigo is short.
Major 2nd S2 remains consistently good as anyone who has ever followed the franchise would expect. The current arc again revisits events from the first season of Major 2nd, but it should still be accessible to new viewers. Well, they can be new to Major, but it probably helps to know at least a little about baseball. At a minimum, it will reinforce how relatively lucky the new girl has been so far despite making a lot of basic mistakes.

This is not actually a room.
One Room is also back for a third season. It's first-person-anime gimmick seems a bit lewder this time around than I remember from the previous installments. However, it's still fairly tame even though the first girl found an excuse to whip off her clothes by the second episode. I guess since the characters only gets three episodes for each arc they have to make the best of their opportunities.

Strike Witches is still Miyafuji's show.
Going the other way, Strike Witches: Dai-501 Tougou Sentou Koukuudan ROAD to BERLIN (the third "proper" season of Strike Witches) is definitely less lewd now compared to how it started out. The first season of Strike Witches featured uncensored casual nudity on a fairly regular basis. This season started with an appearance by Sakamoto Mio wearing pants, of all things. PANTS!
Posted in Golden Kamuy, Major, Major 2nd, Major 2nd S2, One Room, Strike Witches: Road to Berlin | Tags: 3D, Air Power, Autumn 2020, Bad Things Happen to Good People, baseball, Bend Her Over a Kotatsu, Childhood Friend, Fan Service, Girls With Guns, Hanakana Distortion Field, Hanazawa Kana, Kadowaki Mai, Koshimizu Ami, Manga, Mecha Musume, Miyuki Sawashiro, Plying Girls, Romance, Season Introduction, Sequels, Short Shows, Superlovely Character Designs, war, War Is All Hell | Permanent Link

There's also a Saekano connection.
When I first saw the announcement for a Miru Tights anime, I assumed it was only going to be an OVA. It turns out it's a series on the YouTube. There are five episodes so far, with about as much continuity as you might reasonably expect from a collection of anime shorts that exist pretty much solely for ogling-type purposes. It's loosely based on the work of this artist (Yom). Surprising no one, I'm sure, hosiery features prominently throughout each four-minute episode.

This is some combination.
With regard to other fetish anime, I suppose Miru Tights shares most in common with Aiura (which arguably is not a fetish anime at all). I'm not sure I've seen very many other fetish shows, for that matter, although I guess Anitore! EX and Anitore! XX count. Miru Tights is also doing that thing where various popular artists provide stylized end cards for the show, although they don't appear with the episodes hosted on the YouTube. You can find them at the usual places and (partially) via the Twitter. I don't have any idea how many episodes Miru Tights is expected to run, but it started late, so probably less than 10? Or maybe they'll just keep making episodes forever, like One Piece. That could happen, right?
Posted in Miru Tights | Tags: Built for Sin, Compare and Contrast, Fan Service, Haruka Tomatsu, Kayano Ai, Labor of Love, Legs that go up to her neck, Season Introduction, Short Shows, Spring 2019 | Permanent Link

The matching guitars are actually magic beam rifles. This is not a joke.
P.S. Spoilers.
Seven or eight of the shows I plan to watch during the Summer 2018 anime season are shows continuing from Spring 2018 or sequels. Specifically, Overlord III, One Room 2, and Cinderella Girls Gekijou 3rd Season are sequels, and the shows continuing from last season are Detective Conan, GeGeGe no Kitarou, Major 2nd, Hugtto! Precure, and possibly Piano no Mori.
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Posted in Hugtto! Precure, iDOLM@STER, THE, Cinderella Girls, Major 2nd, One Room, Overlord, Piano no Mori | Tags: baseball, Bedrooms, Bend Her Over a Kotatsu, books, Fan Service, Figure Skating, Gainax, Hanakana Distortion Field, Hanazawa Kana, Legs that go up to her neck, Light Novels, Mahou Shoujo, Season Introduction, Sequels, Short Shows, Shows that never end, Spoilers, Summer 2018, Superlovely Character Designs | Permanent Link

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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Posted in 3-Gatsu no Lion, Aikatsu! Stars, Anitore! XX, Brave Witches, Bubuki Buranki: Hoshi no Kyojin, ClassicaLoid, Detective Conan, Fune no Amu, Hibike! Euphonium 2, Keijo!!!!!!!!, Koneko no Chi Ponponra Daibouken, Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku, Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desukara., Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desukara. 2, Mahou Tsukai Precure!, Nazotokine, Nyanbo!, Shūmatsu no Izetta, To Be HERO, ViVid Strike! | Tags: 3D, Air Power, Autumn 2016, CATS, Classical Music, Fan Service, Fat Anime Characters, Girls With Guns, Kyoto Animation, Mahou Shoujo, Music, noitaminA, of the year, Season Introduction, Sequels, SHAFT, Short Shows, Sunrise, war, Yotsuba | Permanent Link

It probably doesn't mean she has crabs.
I forgot to mention that I started watching Aiura. It's a pleasant enough show, but I don't have much to say about it because it's so short. (It's another one of those jobbies with four-minute episodes.) I guess I can say I also have no idea why crabs and Steve Jobs are in the OP. There has been some speculation that crabs refer to the zodiac sign Cancer since Steve Jobs died of cancer, but I'm calling that one a coincidence absent some more compelling reason why that would be in the OP either.

It's not easy being best.
I can also say that the show does appear to be the labor of love of somebody with a deep appreciation of the bare thighs of teenage girls. There is that. Oh, and it's the second show this season (along with Valvrave the Liberator) where the BEST GIRL is named Saki. If you include Saki from Natsuiro Kiseki, that makes girls named Saki three-for-three in shows from recent memory seizing BEST GIRL honors. When Genshiken Nidaime starts in a few weeks, girls named Saki will go four-for-four. I might be on to something here.
Note 1: Or possibly the genus, since hardly anyone in anime outside of The Melody of Oblivion seems to care about the western zodiac.
Posted in Aiura, BEST GIRL, Genshiken, Genshiken Nidaime, Kakumeiki Valvrave, Natsuiro Kiseki | Tags: footnotes, Labor of Love, Legs that go up to her neck, OP ED, Short Shows, Spring 2013 | Permanent Link
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