Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well!
It’s about that time again to rant, rave and say ‘meh’ about the various anime I watched during the winter 2024 season! This season was a bit of a light one at 11 shows, so I was pleasantly surprised at how low my “workload” was per day! But yes, as always, I’ll just be briefly summing up what I thought about each show and rating it from 1 to 10!
Spoilers beyond this point! Let’s go!
Momochi-san Chi no Ayakashi Ouji
I’d always seen this manga floating around many mangatubers’ channels, shoujo enthusiasts, and supernatural lovers alike, so when I saw it was getting an anime adaptation, I wanted to see what it was all about.
All I have to say is that I would like to have a chat with the manga readers. Because what was that!? Do you mean to tell me she falls for the Unremarkable McGee in a house full of way hotter men? Be so for real right now! And then I was hoping it would be her falling for the supernatural creature like in Black Bird. What this could’ve been, for real. So needless to say, I was disappointed because of that. Aoi’s Nue form was so hot!!
In terms of the actual romance, I thought it was meh. Nothing to write home about certainly. It was the lore of the series that kept me going. There were a lot of good discussions about Himari’s family and the backstory surrounding that as well as getting to know Aoi’s familiars. And let me just get this out of the way: all of the men in this anime were hot. Including the gatekeeper in episode 8 and Kasha, who I wanted to learn so much more about!
Other than that, I thought the visuals were stunning, and the music was good. I’d give it a 6/10!
Kusuriya no Hitorigoto
If you read through my novel-sized 2023 wrap-up where I did the Interest Nook Honor Awards, you’ll know this anime won an honor award! It’s the first time I’m doing one of these reflections where I haven’t finished the post but an anime won something before it even was finished airing. Kusuriya no Hitorigoto had the pleasure of winning the best anime opening of that year! I thought it was a masterpiece and the second opening song greatly disappointed me when they switched it up, but I digress. Let’s talk about what got me into watching this in the first place!
I had always kept my eye on the manga of this and for the longest time, I had volumes 1 through 5 on my bookshelf just waiting to be read. I’m not the type of person who is just in the mood to watch something unless it’s very specifically a hyperfixation or just something that’s in the back of my mind for a while. Thus, I let fate decide when I read this and one random day on a random number generator the next manga that I was going to read would be The Apothecary Diaries! Honestly, I’m glad I did because it gave me a nice foundation to go into this anime and how the studios involved would handle its adaptation.
Since the light novels are not translated, I don’t have the authentic experience of knowing the entire source material, but from reading the manga and comparing it to the anime adaptation, I can see virtually no difference in the way that how they captured so much of the magic. Especially in the visuals of the show. When I tell you that the animation of this show is not only gorgeous but fluid and dynamic and the character designs are exactly as I pictured them being in the manga, I mean it! You very rarely get that with anime adaptations so I’m thrilled to say that I’m very proud to say that.
Honestly, because I haven’t done a post about how much I’m enjoying the manga currently, I’m going I’ll just kind of sum up how I feel about the story as a whole because it’s very similar to the manga. I love the interaction between the historical court that the anime takes place in with the apothecary notes that are sprinkled and Maomao becoming a poison tester for the court. Even though she’s not “conventionally” attractive, she fits the role because of her family’s backstory. Then you have the romance element in the background that’s mostly just undertones and subtlety, but I can see it going in a direction where it develops into something very beautiful and special, so that’s for future consideration as the story goes on.
All of those elements together make for a perfect cacophony of things I enjoy: romance, mystery because we’re focusing on poison testing, and individual episodic mysteries because I love episodic shows. In addition, it has apothecary and pharmaceutical stuff which I enjoy seeing in anime and the whole setting of something historical with all those elements makes me enjoy the historical genre more because historically (hah) I’m not been a fan of historical genre things. I find them to be quite boring, but the show does it in a way that makes me engaged in what’s going on and makes me care about the setting because I care about the characters.
Speaking of the characters, they are all lovable! Maomao is a great main character. She’s very neutral in the ways that she interacts with people, but has subtle femininity. She’s very knowledgeable, but also kind of a fool sometimes which I think is realistic. Her dynamic with Jinshi is fun to watch as well because it plays with the trope of the guy who’s flirty and everyone falls for him except for the one girl and that’s who falls for. And I eat that the fuck up.
The dynamics of the palace with all the consorts is kind of in the background, but also very relevant to the story and it wedges itself in so perfectly that I don’t have a problem with it. I couldn’t even tell you one nitpick I had about it. I will say that Ah-Duo was my favorite character and she’s going to be my favorite character spotlight! The way she just carried herself with grace despite her tragic past really made me feel for her.
So overall, I think this adaptation was flawlessly done and it can only go up from here because it was announced for a second season which I am so hyped about! I think because this started in the Fall 2023 season that was my most anticipated anime adaptation of the season but unfortunately with our next entry, it got trumped out by another manga that I was reading and very excited to see get an adaptation.
I would give this anime a 9/10! My only thing is that I wish the romance was a little bit more pushed forward, but even in the manga where I’m at right now, it’s not even all the way there yet so I completely understand. It’s an almost flawless show, and I think if I rewatched it, it would be a 10/10.
Yubisaki to Renren
My most anticipated anime adaptation of the year thus far is Yubisaki to Renren! I mean the year’s young and this is our first anime season but I don’t see anything topping this for me because I have been excited to watch this ever since it was announced. I’ve been saying this manga has needed an adaptation for years because it’s a very visual story and I would just love to see it play out.
This was again another manga that got chosen randomly to read, but I have always heard from the romance fans out there that this manga was stellar and I completely agree. As a lover of all languages especially sign language, because I was an ASL tutor and my minor was in Deaf studies, I was ecstatic to find a manga that focused on sign language as its main mode of storytelling. I adore all types of romance and I’ve seen quite a few films with Deaf and hearing romances and was intrigued to know there was a manga about it, so I wanted to give it a shot. TLDR: this manga is one of the most wholesome and pure things I’ve ever read and I just simply adore it. So that gave a lot of stakes and high expectations for this anime adaptation.
I’d say the adaptation delivered on my expectations! Not only was the animation very colorful and beautiful like I expected it to be with those manga covers, but seeing the actual Japanese sign language come to life was very special because it intrigued me as a linguist so that was a very exciting part of the series to me. As for the faithfulness to the manga, it is like the Apothecary Diaries: completely faithful. I hope that it gets a second season! I didn’t see anything announced but I would just love to continue this momentum because it’s a nearly flawless manga and it can be a nearly flawless show if it continues towards the end.
The wholesomeness of Yuki and Itsuomi’s relationship just makes me squeal and kick my feet like I’m a 12-year-old girl reading some fanfiction, but that’s just the way that it makes me feel when I watch the romance play out. I also loved how supportive Yuki’s best friend was regarding their relationship, too! There’s no unnecessary drama or stupid people throwing wrenches in their romance. Some dumb second leads in here think in an entitled way toward their crush, but they don’t try to interfere and it’s so refreshing when I see that. I always harp in my blog post about the unnecessary drama between leads and it pisses me off, but here I’m chill, calm, happy, even and that’s what we all need to be when reading and watching romances. I like to believe in them and feel the chemistry without some other people ruining it. I mean, I guess that is realistic but I’m happy that I have my happy feel-good moments with the series.
That being said, this adaptation is a 9/10 for the first season! I wouldn’t give it a perfect 10/10 because I feel like we’re on the edge of something more magical happening with them as a couple in subsequent seasons if they happen, so I’m going to leave it a little room and for now, just keep it at that. I can always change my score but I’m just going to leave it there.
Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu wo Mankitsu suru
Besides this anime having the best opening of the entire season, (it just felt so nostalgic and special) I was initially interested in this anime because it kind of portrayed itself as a different kind of isekai with multiple reincarnations and loops. However, it was kind of falsely advertised because it included the villainess tag, which as you know from my previous anime reflection season posts, I adore that genre of isekai, so that’s part of the reason why I went into this.
The problem is: that it’s not a villainess anime. The main character is the royal fiance of a prince and his family breaks off the engagement and practically disowns her. Because she’s shamed by everyone, they make her out to be a bad character, which she isn’t. They just denote her as such and then they slap the villainess tag on it because they think the way other people treat her can justify the tag. But that’s not how that works, so it’s just a weird way that they tried to shoehorn that villainess tag in and I’m not a fan of it.
I will say that they did put in the title ‘married to her worst enemy’ and that sort of happened. I mean, she’s trying to woo one of the crown princes that in the past killed her in her previous life. So she tries to flirt with him and appeal to him so that she’ll be on his side and hopefully deter him from being the tyrant and creating future conflict, and surprisingly, it works. He proposes to her and she’s not expecting it and that all happens in the first couple of episodes. It did make my heart skip a beat in the beginning, but quickly became stale by the end, I’m afraid.
After that, I feel like the story went downhill very slowly because they started talking about a lot of political stuff and moved away from the advertising of the show’s core, which is a villainess romance with an enemy royal. They just play off the politics and I felt like for a minute we were just going full Code Geass in full politics mode with very small glimpses of romance and for the most part once that happened, I was just bored so it didn’t give me a chance to get attached to the characters. I was just tuned out from then on in. So needless to say, I didn’t have a favorite character spotlight.
I’d have to give this a 6/10 ultimately. I can see myself re-watching this sitting down and trying to understand what the fuck happened, trying to piece together what the show was going for, but for now, I’m just going to leave it at that and call it a day. I did want to learn more about her life as an herbalist, though, that would’ve intrigued me more!
Dosanko Gal wa Namara Menkoi
Next, we have Dosanko Gal, which intrigued me because I was running low on my harem-watching skills. I could see this as a turn-your-brain-off show just to enjoy. In the beginning, I felt like it had a lot of appeal and comedy and I wouldn’t say that it went stale but it became normal for me to get used to its comedy. It happened very quickly and I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I just think that it could have been better. All of the love interests were valid and I didn’t mind the ending because I wasn’t super duper invested. I will say that Sayuri immediately intrigued me because of how pretty she is!
And that is because the main character is a Mr. Unremarkable McGee. I have a whole post talking about whether anime protagonists deserve the harem that they got here and whenever it’s a Mr. Unremarkable McGee, chances are the answer is usually no. But this guy was just so unremarkable that I couldn’t even form an opinion about whether he deserved the harem that he got or not. Granted it was only three women but I don’t know. I honestly just think this is a 6/10 show. I liked that the setting was in Hokkaido and I liked the music and the animation but other than that, I just thought it was fine.
High Card S2
Coming off the momentum of season 1 which I covered in a previous reflections post here, my hopes for season 2 were to see how it would expand the world how I wanted it to and wrap it up in a neat little bow. However, the season got bogged down partly because it took an entire year for it to be produced, and my initial opinion on the first season was that it should have been 24 episodes maybe with back-to-back cours so that it could continue the story. Honestly, I probably should have rewatched the first season fully, but I did a little recap for myself and the continuity between this season and the last season is not great.
This is partly because instead of latching on to the original concept that they wanted the High Card group to retrieve all the cards to get to the king, now they’re throwing in a weird familial conflict where one of the characters was the main character’s brother the entire time and he’s evil because of the card that is possessing him and all this lore with the cards that we should have got in the first season. It was just too much for me to be honest and they kind of threw it all at you at the end of the season which was a little much. Before those plot implementations, I couldn’t tell you what happens besides Chris Redgrave getting fucked up and almost dying and some slice-of-life things.
But here’s the thing with me: I like establishing the story, like how we did in the first season with some of the lore and expansive world and then throwing in some slice of life but with this season, it was a slice of life for the first maybe eight episodes and then right at the end here’s all the rest of the shit you asked for all in one time. I would much rather learn the story in pieces and piece it all together by the end instead of getting half the puzzle completed then waiting a year and then getting the last few pieces of the puzzle at the end.
I just disliked that experience. I gave the first season a 7 and since I still like the story, the action, the characters, and the lore of the cards, I’ll give the second season a 6/10. I just wish that it wasn’t sandwiched at the end and made me feel like we should have just had my original plan happen and had continuous cours. That being said I can see myself re-watching this all together at once to see how I digest it in the future as I feel like with a lot of these airing shows, you forget stuff and I’m not a binger.
Gekai Elise
As I covered previously in this post, I thoroughly enjoy pharmaceutical and medical things in anime and shows in general, so seeing that this anime was about a surgeon who’s reincarnated in a medically disadvantaged world and didn’t know much about modern medicine was a very intriguing concept to me. Even though it was an isekai, I was very excited to go into the show with an open mind and to see where it would take me. However, I didn’t know that it was a manhwa adaptation until I started writing this post! It feels so uniquely anime that it surprised me, honestly.
Not only was it a very refreshing show to watch in the middle of the week, but it was episodic in terms of the medical mysteries that were going on. It was very deductive and I found myself leaning toward finding out what was happening because right now I’m a medical scribe so I’m learning about medicine every day and I found it fun to theorize what she was going to do with the patients. I remember I think in the last couple of episodes she was talking about the king being on his deathbed and she wasn’t sure if it was his diabetes that was causing his shortness of breath and I was thinking to myself, “Oh my god, does he have a blood clot?” and she confirmed my suspicions. I never really had that feeling before about medical stuff so I thought that was pretty cool.
Elise’s character was very interesting because even though she was a full-fledged licensed surgeon in her modern life, she didn’t become cocky and entitled to her knowledge. She kept herself humble which I appreciate, especially in the world that she was reincarnated in. They had minimal knowledge of modern medicine. They knew very little about diabetes and didn’t even know the king had it and about simple interventions. When Elise did a tracheostomy, everyone was mortified and wanted to vilify her for trying to become a doctor, but that was very indicative of the time and transported me to the exact world that she was in. Plus, she had to redeem herself with this second reincarnation, which was cool.
I don’t exactly know what period she was reincarnated into, I didn’t pick up on that so if you have a little tidbit about that please let me know! Regardless, it made the world so immersive because you had the dynamics of the world interacting with a person from modern times trying to integrate all this knowledge into what they already know without looking like a complete lunatic and that’s hard to do. There were many times in the series where they all looked at her like she had grown three heads and it just made me laugh. The series was unintentionally funny in that way but it made it such an enjoyable watch.
Despite all the other things that were going on with it, I thought it had incredible music! That opening was so nostalgic and awesome! I would give it a 7/10 right now but I could see myself rewatching it and giving it higher. I just really enjoyed watching this and I would rewatch it just for fun because it was a fun ride to go on!
Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!
Here we go with another manga that I have been reading that finally got an anime adaptation! Finally! I watched the Japanese drama for this first before starting to read the manga and fell in love with it. I can’t remember if I saw a TikTok about it or if it was advertised somewhere to me, but I’m a big fan of BL dramas because they’re very hard to come by especially ones that have a compelling story and are not toxic which falls into a lot of the BL manga side of things. So needless to say, I was excited! I got up to date with the manga and I was excited about this adaptation to see it play out.
I’ve got to say that I do prefer the drama just because it was the first thing I watched of the series and it just has a special place in my heart, but the anime was good. It was very faithful to the manga. I didn’t see any discrepancies or crazy tangents that they could’ve pulled off. I love the manga because it’s very wholesome and the two main relationships between Adachi and Kurosawa are free of drama and the build-up is really good! I can say the same for Minato and Tsuge, even though the age gap is a little sus, but I can look past it.
I don’t have much to say about it, though! I feel like it gets the same score as the manga which is an 8/10!
Pon no Michi
One of my favorite genres of slice of life is cute girls doing cute things. And seeing that this anime boasted a found family trope with mahjong playing was right up my alley.
And I’ve got to say I really enjoyed this! It was a simple watch and didn’t involve anything too egregious to focus on in terms of lore. I mean you did have Chonbo as the supernatural cute character insert and his entire being is ambiguous as hell, but other than that, it explained a lot about mahjong’s rules and dynamics of the game more than I knew beforehand. I’d always been interested in the sport, but didn’t delve too much deeper into it, so it was a partially good introduction. I almost wished instead of leaning too much into slice of life it was more of a sports anime.
Speaking of the slice of life, seeing the girls gradually come into each other’s lives and integrate themselves as a friend group was really nice to see. I didn’t find anything nitpicky to say about them. They were all just really pleasant to watch. Special shoutout to Haneru because I love a good gothic moment. All of the character designs were just really good in my opinion, and for this being an original, the story was pretty solid as well. Pretty low impact, but still good.
I also have to comment on how funny this anime was in a subtle way. I never usually laugh at anime because I’m used to the comedic style they have by now, but this was really refreshing! It’s nice to have something subvert my expectations. Some of the wacky facial expressions the characters had made me chuckle so many times! I love the quirkiness of this series. It leads you in with a very innocent and simple premise with a leadup of the main character not knowing mahjong to get us acquainted with the game.
Initially, I shit all over the opening when I first heard it. I thought it was a cringy, lifeless song with too much autotune and weirdness. But as I kept listening to it, it grew on me and I came to love it! Definitely one of the most unique openings of the season.
Other than that, I don’t have much else to say about it. It was a good turn your brain off show and it was impactful in its education as well. I will say that because it wasn’t a full-fledged sports anime that could’ve been longer, it suffers from not getting a higher score. 7/10.
Majo to Yajuu
My initial interest in this anime came from the fact that it was on my manga plan to read for the longest time, and even deeper into that, I really liked the lore of the witches and supernatural vibes that this series boasted with the main character being cursed.
After watching this though, I can’t say that I was as interested. In the beginning of the show, it had a really strong start. The lore really gave a sense of mystery to who cast that curse on Guideau in the first place, and how the unlikely pair of her and Ashaf came to be. I was really into their dynamic and the lines they had to cross to work together and how they grate on each other.
However as the show went on, I honestly couldn’t really tell you what happened. There were moments of episodic witches that Guideau was trying to discern if they were the one that cast the curse on her, but most of it came up naught. Then at the end there was this weird war-like conflict that I honestly didn’t understand, and I’d have to chalk it up to not paying that much attention and the show just being confusing.
I will say that the atmospheric animation and music gave it much more life than the actual plotline. I really did love the opening as it was dark and evocative and conveyed the show’s tone very well!
So one day I’ll have to give this a rewatch, but for now, I’ll leave it a 5/10. And hearing that the manga is on hiatus doesn’t give me very much hope, so I’m removing it from my plan to read for now.
Bucchigiri!?
I think a lot of people wanted to watch this show for the simple fact that it’s a MAPPA original, which I get. However, I don’t ride the dick of animation studios simply because of their repertoire. Like any other film director or studio, there are bound to be stinkers amongst all of the good, so I don’t have any allegiance to them one way or the other. But what did I watch this show for, pray tell?
I’m guilty. I watched this show for the most shallow and selfish desires that one could come up with: a hot character. When I saw Marito Jin, my heart skipped a beat. Not only is he a long-haired anime man which I love, but he has the alternate vibe of the piercings and clothing he wears. Plus, he does some tongue stuff in the anime that was good enough for me to start simping. As a character, he’s a little bit of wackjob, but I can overlook it.
Now back to actual plot significance of the show. I don’t even know what to call Senya and Ichiya. Genies with battle equivalence? An entity to propel friendship breakups? Or just some guys who needed to be there for the drama? Either way, they were entertaining in their own right to help propel the story, but I don’t think enough to charm our characters. Most of the characters were whatever, and I didn’t feel very strongly about them.
The main character Arajin, however, annoying as fuck. He took a page from Denji from Chainsaw Man’s book of having no inspiring or relatable motive. His initial wish to Senya was to lose his virginity and…that’s it. Really bro? What else do you want to do with your life? And to make things worse and add insult to injury, they change his character halfway through the show to mirror Naruto in the Naruto/Sasuke-like bond they were trying to pull off with Matakara. And that conflict failed because their bond was never compelling enough and emotional in the first place to mirror such a legendary conflict as Naruto and Sasuke. Plus, Matakara’s character change was completely unfounded and quite dumb, if you think about it.
Not only that, but I absolutely detested Mahoro, Marito’s sister. Not only did she have some weird incest vibes going on with her admiration for her brother, but she comes off as this cute and potentially interesting love interest in the beginning, then immediately dislikes Arajin when he beats up her brother. I mean, it’s warranted, but still. What a shallow bitch. She was just generally unfunny also. I get she’s supposed to be the archetype of a violent love interest, but I never find that funny nor the incest bits.
As for the actual story that went on in the show, I couldn’t care less. At least the animation and opening and ending songs were fun. 5/10.
Concluding Thoughts
Out of the 11 shows I watched this season, the average score tabulated from all of the scores was a 6.7, which is on the good side of the 6/10 rating, which is cool. Probably my highest yet! Let me know if it wasn’t though, I’m not keeping stats on my reflections posts.
Let me know your thoughts about the shows I watched this season and if there are any I missed that you think were spectacular! I will say I didn’t watch the newest Blue Exorcist season because I’m not caught up on the anime, but I am on the manga!
I hope your day/night/morning/evening/afternoon or whatever time it is for you out there. Thanks so much for checking out my blog! Much love!