I’m enjoying Magic Maker. For some reason I’ve not really heard anything at all or negative things about it.

I think the idea that magic hasn’t been invented yet and the main character is a researcher who has to create it from scratch makes this a little more fresh in the isekai genre.

Started off the week with the rest of the first season of Queen’s Blade, which was surprisingly good. That’s not to say it was really good by any broad measure - just that it was pleasantly better than it seemed like it had any reason to be. For the staggering amount of fanservice it had, it actually managed to have pretty good characters and some interesting intrigue.

I intended to go on to the second season, since the first season introduces the characters who are going to take part in this battle royale and follows their journeys to the capital city where it’s going to take place, then leaves then there. But I was sort of burnt out on fanservice, so I thought I’d take a break with a movie or a single episode OVA or something. And since I’d heard good things about it and it seemed like a certain palate cleanser, I picked the first OVA of Little Witch Academia.

So I watched that. Then I watched it again. Then I watched it again. Then I watched the second OVA, then I watched the first one a couple more times, then I started the series, with occasional breaks to watch the first OVA again.

By my count, I’ve watched that first OVA eight times now, and I would say that it is quite simply the best single episode of anime I’ve ever seen. It’s 24 minutes of pure, distilled awesome. There isn’t a single wasted frame in the entire thing, and there are so many wonderful moments I couldn’t count them all. And it’s not just big splashy things - there are little bits of brilliance scattered all the way through it.

The second OVA, on the other hand, was disappointingly mediocre. It’s not bad by any means - it’s just sort of… ordinary. The series has been pretty good though, with the only real problem, to me, being that all of Akko’s character development is essentially just temporary. The idea is supposed to be that as she grows and learns, she comes to understand and adopt new things. And she does come to understand them, but only really for exactly as long as it takes for the magic to happen, then she goes back to being pretty much the same Akko she was in episode 1. Still though, it’s good enough, and I especially like the pacing. And Diana’s shaping up to be an especially interesting character.

Other than that, all I’ve watched is the latest episodes of the three series I’ following - Guild Receptionist (sort of floundering), Zenshu (taking a very dark turn but at least the story’s resolving) and Honey Lemon Soda (still tropish but satisfyng.

I completed season 1 of Beastars.

It feels like a crossover of Zootopia and Twilight.

I like how complex the characters are. Also, it has just the right amount of suspense, drama and funny for me.

One thing I don’t understand is: guns exist in universe. Why don’t the herbivores capable of wielding them do so? I’m just going to ignore this gap in logic.

This is yet another 10 / 10 from me. I’m so looking forward to watching its future seasons.

Man, I’m on a roll with top-tier anime recently.

Weekly ranking roundup:

1. Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: Tying the Know With An Amigami Sister
2. Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Solo Leveling

Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.

Amagami Sister topping the chart for AC is interesting because it is languishing all the way down at #19 for reddit. I don’t really know anything about the show, but the past two weeks it shot up the chart, so it must be having some kind of climactic moment to usurp shows like Re:Zero and Solo Leveling.

Work hit me like truck-kun this past week, so I haven’t really been able to watch much of anything. Since I can’t really talk about what I watched this past week, I thought I would use this week’s post to talk about something I have been thinking about, specifically (re)watches of older shows.

Calendar - The Final Boss

I have kind of been thinking about organizing a rewatch of an older series in this community, but haven’t really been sure about the best way to do it. Back in the olden days, the anime subreddit occasionally had rewatches of a show I was interested in watching or rewatching, but their pace of watching a show is usually 1-2 episodes per day and I just could never keep up. So, I was wondering if I were to organize a community watch of a series, what a good pace would be for users here.

Frankly speaking, trying to do a show at a 1-2 episode per day pace is just not possible for me. Instead of watching the series alongside everybody, to maintain that pace, I would basically pre-watch the whole thing and then just schedule threads.

A more realistic pace for me would be something like 1-3 episodes per week, maybe like a M,W,F kind of thing. I have thought about doing 1 episode a week on a day of the week where not a lot of other shows air. For instance, this season has a very slow Monday and Tuesday.

What do other people here think would work for you?

Series - Pick Your Poison

I have a couple series in mind that I thought about having be the first series to watch. I welcome input that others might have on these. I haven’t made up my mind yet.

• Cowboy Bebop - An absolute classic. It has a MAL and AniList id number of 1 for a reason. It runs for 26 episodes and a movie, so it would probably be better to do 2+ episodes per week or it will run for a good chunk of the year.
• Mushishi - My personal favorite anime that I want to evangelize. Also, it is an anthology series, so it would be easy for people to skip an episode here and there and then hop back in. It runs for 36 episodes and 2 OVAs between both seasons, so it would also be quite the commitment.
• A Place Further Than the Universe - A single season show that I have not seen before. I have only heard great things about this show and I have been meaning to check it out for a while and this would be a great source of motivation.
• Cyberpunk Edgerunners - Another single season show I haven’t seen before. Another that has sat on my list to watch at some point.

Additionally, if there is any other suggestions that people have for candidates for this kind of community-run event, that would be more than welcome.

Join the Fun

Finally, if this is something that somebody else wants to organize and run, you are more than welcome to take the reins. There is no reason that I am the only one allowed to organize something like this or have complete control over it. If you want to run a community watch, here are the general guidelines I suggest:

1. Make a post gauging interest before actually starting. See if there are others that want to actually watch with you. This is probably a good place to finalize a pace with those that are interested.
2. Start the community watch, trying your best to stick to the schedule. Community watch threads are not created by rikka automatically, so it’s up to you. If you are going to miss some posts, you can arrange one of the other watchers to make the post in your stead, or use a scheduling tool to plan out your post unattended.
3. Make sure to contribute! If you are running a community watch, make sure that you are kicking off the discussion.
4. Enjoy!

Anyway, just something that’s been on my mind lately. Looking for some early feedback from users that frequent this community enough to bother reading my weekly post threads.