Fall season and the year of 2024 is drawing to a close. Most shows have either wrapped up this past week or are wrapping up this week. So, let’s talk about it! Did anything surprise you? disappoint you? exceed your expectations? Of course, more general topics are still welcome just like any week.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Since I’m not watching anything this season and instead browsing through the past:
First up last week was Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake ka yo (2019), which was… not good. At all. It was sort of promising at first - the initial setup was intriguing if a bit derivative - but it fell flat almost immediately and never recovered. The biggest problem - I don’t know if it traces back to the LN or was just part of the adaptation - is that the writer(s) appear to have understood the idea that it’s good to have characters who grow and change, but didn’t get the bit about the changes having context and following a recognizable progression. So what we get are characters who are seemingly arbitrarily assigned traits, then at some later point, they’re essentially arbitrarily assigned different traits.
Next was Nisemonogatari (2012), which was… kind of dull really. It’s all the same gimmicks as Bakemonogatari, but at this point, they’re wearing a bit thin for me. And try as I might, I just detest Senjougahara.
Then came a surprising gem - season 2 of KonoSuba (2017). I liked season 1 well enough, but it just didn’t quite come together entirely for me. And season 2 didn’t look promising, since the first thing I noticed was that it has just about the worst art I’ve ever seen. It looks like it was done cheap and fast by amateurs. But then I discovered (the surprising bit) that pretty much every other aspect of the season was stellar - great stories, great characterization (most notably, they took the edge off of Kazuma’s assholery - in the first season there were too many times when it was unwarranted and too extreme, but in the second season, it was better timed and proportioned), and more genuine laugh out loud moments. And both the opening and closing themes are terrific.
And finally, after bouncing off of a few things, I ended up rewatching Akudama Drive (2020). The first time through I was initially intrigued but not particularly impressed, then slowly came to enjoy it more and more and was very impressed by the end. I wanted to see if it held up to a rewatch though, since I wasn’t sure if it was genuinely that good or if I was just swayed by the contrast between my initial reaction and expectations and what it turned out to be. And I’d say it really is genuinely that good. It’s not flawless by any means - it has some plot holes and some notably forced bits, but all in all, it just really is very good. And Swindler - the main character - is plain awesome.
Oh man, now you get to watch the Konosuba movie, my favorite piece of Konosuba media. I also agree that season 2 is really where the show hit its stride.
As for bakemonogatari (and subsequent -gataris), I have bounced off that series a couple of times now. I can’t really put my finger on it exactly, but I sympathize with you in that it hasn’t really grabbed me. It might just be one of those series that you either click with or you don’t.
Yeah - the movie’s next up on my list. At the moment, I’m wading through season 5 of Star Trek Lower Decks.
The thing with season 2 of KonoSuba - in retrospect, I can’t even quite pin down what made it so much better than season 1. There were some notable bits (like the introduction of Yunyun, who makes me laugh pretty much without fail), but really it seems that it’s just that every part of it was kicked up a notch. Or at least everything other than the embarrassingly awful animation, but I stopped noticing that for the most part.
And yeah - the Monogataris. At some point, I’m going to watch Nekomonogatari Kuro, since it’s a prequel and fills in the part of the story that’s repeatedly flashed back to in Bakemonogatari, and then I suspect I’ll be done with the series. I don’t really dislike it - it’s just sort of tedious and pointless.
It definitely is
Konosuba is one of those rare anime where the sequels are better than the 1st season.