Winter 2024 Anime Retrospective

Ach ja, after having only watched a, compared to the following seasons, meager amount of three anime airing in Fall 2023, it was time to completely go overboard with Winter 2024: Eleven anime in total and if I wouldn’t have dropped Ishura and Hokkaido Gals early on, I could have even completed the full baker’s dozen, which is more than all the new anime I watched last year combined. Though, to be fair, Monster is just a short one episode ONA, I didn’t watch Bravern when airing and Frieren and Apothecary Diaries are technically leftovers from Fall 2023, but I will stand my ground that, when talking about something retrospectively, it makes more sense to take the date something ended, rather than started.

Overall, this season turned out to be surprisingly evenly split into either pretty good or lackluster stuff with almost nothing inbetween for me. On one hand, yeah, a lot of good anime, but it is also weird how many not just turned out worse than expected, but I could have just foregone completely, without much regret. With that out of the way, let’s begin the first installment of what could become a recurring series of short seasonal roundups.

A Sign of Affection

A Sign of Affection was just pleasant all around. Okay, maybe not all around with some very specific instances of bewilderment not just from me, but the whole squad (Three is a squad, right?)… or maybe I’m just not shoujo-pilled enough yet to fully understand Itsuomi when it comes to personal space. Either way, while I am often sceptical of romances, I was pretty much hooked from the start. Sure, part of it are the specific circumstances of the characters lending themselves pretty well to a larger focus on communication and exploring other peoples perspectives, something unfortunately way too much amiss in a lot of romance series, but it also makes you feel fluffy and warm around the heart with unexpected consistency. From the many beautiful visual metaphors of love and longing, over the introspection of wanting to be together with someone, to the joy of the characters growing personally as part of being in a relationship.

I personally didn’t really care for the relationships outside of Yuki and Itsuomi, but really appreciate the role most of the side characters play. Especially Ouishi, absolute train wreck that he is, is such a good foil for the both of them and the episode with him and Itsuomi talking it all out is my favorite by a long shot. It is also nice to see a genuinely good portrayal of disability that doesn’t feel exploitative or mean towards the characters. Still would have appreciated a jump scare warning, as I was way too often caught off-guard by surprisingly decent german (and other languages for that matter).

Chained Soldier

If I would have to describe Chained Soldier in a single word, it would be “An utter lack of sauce”. Those are more than one word? Well, if something neither serves, nor spills, keeping the whole plate of noodles in front of me dry and hard to swallow, then maybe it doesn’t deserve succinctness. My main problem with Chained Soldier comes down to the simple fact of it never fully committing to any of its ideas.

High School DxD, for example, goes all in on being horny on main, while Chained Soldier almost seems ashamed and embarrassed by its raunchy parts. Like, my habibi in Christ, I am not here for the bare-bones plot, characters and world-building, as these are bonuses at best, so the least you can do is be entertaining in the other areas. Alas, the hardest it ever goes are half-hearted and fundamentally fruitless encounters of the sexual kind and maybe tipping its toes into tame fetish territory. But if neither the characters nor the audience seem to enjoy the feetfirst polishing of the family jewels, then maybe it is for the best to never bring out the nutcracker in the first place.

The only thing I could praise Chained Soldier for, and this is only due to the bar being buried six feet underground, is Nei. In a series, which tends to pick the lowest fruits of the trope tree on a constant basis, it was welcoming, refreshing even, to see the Loli character being treated in an explicitly non-sexual way, which was enough to make her one of the only two and a half fun characters in the whole anime. Also, while looking for a thumbnail, I found this screencap.

Gushing over Magical Girls

I’ve already written a short post for a specific episode of the anime, so I’ll try to keep this one concise. Gushing over Magical Girls is the result of mixing the understanding for dramatic tension in an otherwise trope defined genre with… a lot of impure thoughts. In fact, it is this sexual obsession with something normally considered innocent and pure, which builds up the main theme of the series, while, in another ironic twist of fate, still being a rather straight-forward and surprisingly non-subversive magical girl anime.

It is just a bit hard to talk about it, because it seems very self-indulgent in some very weird ways. While I have nothing against the idea of teens exploring their sexuality through the specific instances the anime throws them in, the framing of it all makes it seem more like in favor of the audience than the characters and the general approach of its BDSM topic seems well-intentioned and half-hearted at best and less so educational or even just factually close to reality. On the other hand, it is so fucking funny, you wouldn’t believe it, especially when opening up to the other side of the series that isn’t just occupied by teens sexually molesting each other.

The Witch and the Beast

I will never let this one friend recommend me an anime ever again. Honestly, The Witch and the Beast is mostly fine when you know what and when to ignore something. The characters are fine, fun even at times, with Ashaf and Guideau being a great duo, the world-building has its moments and the atmosphere is actually right up my alley. It is, however, also just painfully boring and uninspired in the way it tells its story. Ignoring the obvious loss of aura in its visual presentation due to the transition from manga to anime, I would actually prefer listening to straight up exposition than whatever is even barely attempted in this series.

I have never felt so right in my opinion on judging anime by its first episodes as with this anime. Most of the time, the series feels so frontloaded with ideas that it simply doesn’t know how to weave them into not just a comprehensive story, but an engaging one. As much as this one friend pleaded that it becomes better in the next arc, it simply never did. It stayed a sluggish mess of an otherwise interesting premise.

‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess

There is something to be said about stories that seem to solely rely on their gimmick. In fact, I kinda already did with Saving 80,000 Gold. Similarly, ‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess’ main premise is rather easy to explain: The princess of your generic fantasy land gets captured by the demons and tortured, except that the torture mostly consists of putting tasty or fun things in front of her nose and waiting until she folds and tells a secret. And I have to be honest, those bits are genuinely strong. From its animation and clever use of visual metaphors, it did get a lot of laughs out of me, with the princess and her sword making a pretty decent classic manzai duo. Also, the demon realm being basically modern day japan keeps being hilarious.

What makes the actual series stick for me is everything after the initial “torture”, which you might as well be able to compile in one big YouTube video. Hime is a deeply tragic character and her being captured might actually help her overcome her trauma in the long run. Torture and Giant are great guardians, between Youki, Inki, Krall and Vanilla, Hime is making a lot of real friends and little Maomao is a look into a better future. In fact, I would like to nominate the local demon lord as parent of the year.

Not sure if I will look into the second season, but I am glad there will be more in the future.

Metallic Rouge

I really wanted to love you, Metallic Rouge, I really did. Being produced in celebration of Studio Bones 25th anniversary, many hoped for an ambitious early 2000s style outing from one of the best studios in the industry and the result is… hard to describe only in the way one has to wonder what happened. The story is basically Blade Runner without the actual philosophical bits and a lot of other disconnected elements found in similar cyberpunk stories. We have a half-baked android uprising, a half-baked look on artificial life, a half-baked perspective of alien life and technological advancements and most of all, an utterly undercooked cast of characters. Naomi and Rouge are fantastic, Giallon sometimes fulfills his role as the series’ jester, but everyone else basically runs on implications, hand-fisted flashbacks and a lot of good will.

Episodes like the road trip gone bad in the martian desert or the Whodunit Catch-me-if-you-can on the spaceship are fun, but only in the same way fun things are fun. The rest is a rushed mess that makes me believe Metallic Rouge had to be initially planed as a two-cour anime, which was later cut down to its current episode count, because I can’t fathom how the last minutes of the final episode otherwise came into existence. Part of me is even glad it ended as dumb as it did, because finishing on a decent note, or even a barely passable one, would have been too much too handle.

Brave Bang Bravern!

Gay Robot Sex 👍.

Brave Bang Bravern! turned out to be a bit of a sleeper hit the last season. I mean, it is an original mecha anime with no associated media behind it and the marketing had to be deliberately vague to not take away the surprise, so this one is a given and even I didn’t really gave it the proper attention it deserved when going through the winter season lineup. I also simply didn’t know who Masami Oobari was. An error I have since corrected.

The plot could be described as a Real Robot anime being suddenly invaded by another Super Robot one and playing both sides completely straight (As straight as this series can be). On one hand, you have a semi-futuristic military organization tasked to save the earth from unknown invaders, but there is a also a speaking mecha constantly debating with the top brass how critical his love for his pilot is, while blasting his own theme music in battle and shouting attack names. Also, the plot is basically driven forward by the sexual tension of the reluctant and partially traumatized Isami, the hot-headed american mecha enthusiast Smith, who actually wants to pilot the robot and Bravern, who insists that only Isami can come inside him and play with his joystick.

It’s unironically like Top Gun, except Tom Cruise actually makes out with his F-14. A decent litmus test would be watching the Opening and Ending themes right after another. Didn’t die of the whiplash? Good, you are bound to have a great time. If not… well, it is what it is. Brave Bang Bravern! is filled to the brim with love for the mecha genre and I had an absolute blast of a time watching it. Truly Gagapi.

Sasaki and Peeps

On Paper, Sasaki and Peeps is an interesting genre mix. On screen, it certainly is a genre mix. Sasaki’s biggest sin is arguably being a jack of all trades, but a master of none. It understands the basic appeal of the urban supernatural fantasy setting, the isekai economics, the collecting underage girls like baseball cards and even the “dark twist” on magical girls and it also knows how to combine them all into a coherent narrative. It is just… none of them are that good on their own and neither when combined?

The urban fantasy plots are just not that fun and at times feel like unintentional parody to the point I am not certain if some of it might actually be. The series spends a pretty large chunk of its runtime in the isekai world, but we barely know anything about it beyond the immediate intrigues Sasaki finds himself entangled in. The magical girls come and go without much fanfare and what the extended cast of characters is concerned… they are there? Sasaki and Pii-chan are pleasant to have on screen, but since their progress also mostly stalls until something external happens to them, it is basically hanging constantly by a thread of good faith. One that got thinner and thinner with each passing episode. The last episode sure made a deal of presenting us with something interesting for a change, but I think at this point the anime has already played its hand on a loosing round.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Frieren is fantastic. I may have had my difficulties enjoying it to the fullest, but at the end of the day, it is hard to argue for anything else. Frieren just understands the assignment for what I actually look for in a fantasy series: A fully realized world that serves the characters and themes of the story, a fun but not arbitrary approach to its magical system and singular moments of genuine wonder sprinkled throughout. I also very much enjoy the moderate pace of everything. It is a journey and with the mundanity of life being the point, there is no need to rush.

It is also filled to the brim with understated character moments. Of course, there is Frieren herself having to learn to appreciate the time she spends around other people, Fern’s entire journey of growing up and Stark’s personal fight between his cowardice and bravery. But this is not limited to just the main characters. Himmel has an incredible influence on the entire story, considering he basically only shows up when Frieren reminisces about the past, Wirbel, Übel and Denken are great foils in their own right and even all the characters that only show up for an episode or so are deeply memorable.

Complete with some exceptional production values, it is simply an all-around ideal package of an anime. Now, the only thing left is waiting for me to be proven wrong on whether we will come into the delight of a second season.

Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation

Monsters very much feels like early One Piece. I mean, it is an adaptation of an early One Shot by Oda, so this much only makes sense. But that’s basically all I can say about Monsters. It has the characters, it’s got the comedy, but what is missing is the immediate charme to follow it for the next 1000 chapters. It happened, it was nice, but the long-form build-up and eventual pay-off, which Oda truly mastered over the years, is simply missing here. Ryuuma shows up, beats the twist villain and goes on with his travels. At the end, it is just a prototype of what could have been and eventually became.

The Apothecary Diaries

For the last, but certainly not least entry, let me end this post with an absolute banger. The Apothecary Diaries is great in similar ways I would describe Frieren as great… just with a slightly to very different focus, making this comparison only useful in terms of quality. First of, beyond Maomao being simply so very Hansi-coded, she is also just a phenomenal main character. The duality of her being constantly swept in the moment, but also making the most of her current position, knowing her place, but also knowing better and her seeming indifference contrasted by her genuine interests to understand the world around her, make her a truly interesting character in most situations the story puts her in and is easily marking her a serious contender for one of my favorite characters in fiction. She is also just a very silly little girl. Strong smol bean gremlin obsessed with poison energy. Also, every interaction between her and Jinshi is pure gold.

The episodic medical crime mysteries are very satisfying and really come into their own once the extended cast of characters and the whole palace dynamics are properly introduced and fleshed out. It is also remarkable just how much depth there is in otherwise at first glance seemingly unimportant matters: From the Verdigris House, Maomao’s family relations and the characters connected to the individual mysteries, it constantly comes back between all those little things, revealing a huge net connecting everything, both minor and big. I’m also at awe of how well the anime was successful in deliberately guiding me to think exactly how it wanted to, despite being told several times to not base one’s opinions on conjecture, leading to the incredible episode 23.

While I’m still on the fence about doing a proper write-up, since the anime absolutely deserves more than just these quick disarranged thoughts, I doubt I will dive into the light novels in the foreseeable future. Also, with a second season already announced, I guess I am satisfied looking forward to that.

What’s left?

Nothing, really. Thanks to watching most of the anime weekly while they aired, I am pretty confident I have seen everything I am actually interested in, especially for the stuff I would have normally straight up skipped otherwise when binging anime after a season ends. Solo Leveling might be a possible candidate, but more so out of morbid curiosity than an actual intent to enjoy it on its own merits. My brother also won’t stop talking about it. Shangri-La Frontier also caught my eye several times, due to either its, at times, insane production values or widespread praise for honest and good representation and understanding of games and the people that play those. Unfortunately, the only thing Gamers and I have in common is being afraid of women having a questionable grasp on reality, so I doubt I would really vibe with the anime.

And that’s it. Maybe we will see us in another three months to repeat this endless cycle.