Anime

Started off the week in grand style. I generally prefer to gamble on lesser known series, hoping for an unexpected gem, so I tend to leave known quantities languishing, content that I'll get around to them sooner or later. But I was in the mood for a sure thing, so I jumped all the way to the top and watched Sousou no Frieren. And yeah - it definitely deserves its reputation. It's excellent, and in all respects. The only minor criticism I might have is that the whole mage test arc drug on a bit long, but it introduced (and satisfyingly fleshed out) a whole bunch of interesting and compelling characters, so it was worth it in the long run anyway.

After that, I had two criteria for whatever was next - it had to be another sure thing, and it had to be entirely unchallenging, since I was a bit emotionally drained from Frieren. And I ended up re-(re-re-re-)watching Tenchi Universe. Actually, I just watched the first half dozen or so episodes, until the entire cast had been introduced. It was more of a nostalgia trip than anything else, so once I'd seen Ryouko and Aeka in an epic shouting match, Mihoshi being supernaturally incompetent, Sasami quietly being far and away the best girl, Washuu praising herself, and Kiyone gamely suffering, it'd served its purposes.

Then after a bit of thought, I watched one of the handful of Ghiblis I still hadn't seen - Omoide no Marnie And unsurprisingly, it was very Ghibli - charming, bittersweet, sort of creepy but mostly comfy, very pretty and ultimately heartwarming.

Then I finally felt adventurous again, and after a bit of wandering, ended up with Mayoiga aka The Lost Village. Partly I thought it looked sort of interesting, but mostly I was intrigued by the wide range of opinions on it - even the people who loved it or hated it couldn't seem to agree on why, or even really what it was all about in the first place.

I didn't have any particular issues with it overall. The story seemed pretty straightforward really - neither opaque nor multilayered. It's broadly allegorical, but it's more that it's also allegorical. Mostly it's just straightforward. The characters were mostly exaggerated archetypes, but I didn't mind that, since it laid the foundation for what was to come without having to develop each character separately (since in the long run, the most important thing is that they're all broken in some way). And the ending did more or less tie everything together, though it hand-waved a lot of details.

And honestly, it's not even close to the dumbest suspense/horror anime I've seen.

And along the way, I kept up with the three series I'm following this season (a new record for me - I usually don't follow any and instead binge them at some point in the future). Honey Lemon Soda is still satisfying-if-unexceptional, Guild Receptionist is still on track to be great and Zenshu seems to have leveled out after its recent nosedive, and hopefully it's going to head back to fulfilling its notable potential.