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I've caught up with the currently airing The Unwanted Undead Adventurer. A low-ranked adventurer is killed and wakes up to find himself an undead skeleton. So far the pacing and progression have been carefully laid out, this is more polished than your typical fantasy anime. Small cast with a more serious approach than the standard these days. It avoids the usual formula by combining a little mystery as the undead hero crawls a hidden section of the dungeon.

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I've caught up with Solo Leveling's first 6? episodes, one of the more buzzworthy new shows of 2024. Based on a Korean property, the primary protagonist is the lowest-ranked dungeon adventurer in the world who is more a hindrance to his party than anything else but continues the dangerous job so he can provide for his sister. Long story short, he eventually unlocks a secret which bypasses the world's leveling system. I wouldn't call this my favorite but its serious, mature storytelling explores the concept in a fairly logical manner. It's also set in modern day, so that makes it a bit unique compared to the dozens of medieval anime settings. Definitely edgy violence, it's hard rating the series until we see where they take the lead hero's life.

I'm also checking out 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! I normally don't watch this kind of anime but it is done rather well with mostly clever writing. When a noble woman's marriage is called off, she repeatedly goes through the same five years in time loops and ultimately dies at the end of each one, even if she's done things differently. In the 7th time loop, she uses her experience and knowledge by becoming engaged to the man who has killed her before in prior time loops. Obviously written for women with a bad boy love interest, this is still a cut above.

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If you're looking for a fairly tame ecchi fantasy comedy, you could do a lot worse than The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter. Cute show about a guy who needs to kiss someone whenever he uses his power because otherwise he gets blinding headaches. The love interest is his childhood friend. Mostly along the same lines, if more sanitized, as Immoral Guild.

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Shangri-La Frontier puts a huge smile on my face, what a series. Binged all 18 episodes of it this week and loved it. My best description of it is Sword Art Online if that show didn't take itself seriously. The main character is a high school kid who loves "trash" games, videogames filled with glitches and exploits. He gets talked into playing a really popular game clearly modeled after SAO in some respects using the so-called Full-Dive technology. That's all you really need to know going in but it's a hilarious ride. A more believable deconstruction of VR gaming than SAO thanks to how it satirizes online gaming culture.

The animation in Shangri-La Frontier is top-notch stuff, often strikingly beautiful in a wide variety of locales. I'm interested in catching it on Blu-ray later this year. I did find it funny how the composer ripped off several parts of the Star Wars scores by John Williams.

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I finally watched Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale after all these years. It's the movie which plays between (Phantom Bullet) and (Alicization). I had been meaning to watch it and finally sat down to watch the mostly standalone film after all these years. Thankfully, it's infinitely better than the dreadful arc which precedes it. Love Sword Art Online but found the entire Phantom Bullet plot and new characters a waste of time.

Ordinal Scale explores the differences between VR and something they call augmented reality where users are still aware in physical space despite the VR in their glasses. They get back to having Asuna and Kirito as primary characters. The action scenes are pretty spectacular though the climactic battle feels like overdone fan service that should please fans of SAO's Aincrad arc.

It does introduce characters which play a role in Alicization.

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So I've given The Fruit of Evolution's first 12 episodes a go, though it does have 24 episodes in total. A wacky but funny isekai about a high school kid gifted powers when he eats this special fruit which evolves characters. Our hero ends up marrying a gorilla and donkey before it's all said and done, not to mention others in his party/harem. The funniest stuff is when he accidentally joins a guild of perverts. Sounds raunchy but in actuality I wouldn't even label this an ecchi series. Everything is played for laughs and largely follows the standard adventuring mold once the first mini-arc is over.

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Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny-Girl Senpai is a work of genius. I kept seeing people name this as one of their favorite anime and finally watched it. What a marvelously human depiction of relationships and teenage angst that can be taken on multiple levels. The craftsmanship and storytelling are truly top-notch, a warm and magical concoction which could be construed as romantic comedy but is something so much more.

I'd love to see if someone could successfully adapt for this live-action. Being this late to the party, I discover the Aniplex of America Blu-rays are long out of print and horribly expensive on the secondary market. I might be forced to acquire the Region B set, but I usually avoid getting region-locked discs which don't play on my main player.

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You could do worse than catch Handyman Saitou in Another World. It's a different, idiosyncratic approach to the usual isekai formula with a Japanese handyman finding his place in the world as part of an adventuring group. Outside of him, the characters are all fun parodies of archetypes like the fairy girl and old wizard. What starts out as funny vignettes coalesces into more serious and heartwarming storytelling.

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So I've binged all three seasons available for Classroom of the Elite and not sure what to make of it. Obviously sat through them all, so it kept my interest for the most part and season two is easily the best of all three seasons. One thing I will say, not a huge fan of how the Japanese voice actor approaches the main character. Mix of action, drama, very little romance, and certain high stakes hinted at in the nebulous backstory.

The series is built around a high school boy with hidden talents in a school for the extremely gifted. The school directly pits four classes against each other using a complicated ratings system, though each student receives monthly points they can either spend or trade. Funnily enough, my favorite character is not really a main character and marches to the beat of his own drummer, flouting the system by not playing the "game." Koenji is a complete trip, surfing above the fray kind of like Kramer did on Seinfeld.

It's a large ensemble cast surrounding the main character and I'm not sure I could have kept track of everyone if I hadn't binged all three seasons within a couple weeks.

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I found The Legendary Hero is Dead! all over the place. A bumbling nobody accidentally kills the world's greatest hero and by necessity is forced into a duty he doesn't want. The supporting characters are more likable than our erstwhile hero. For a fantasy adventure show, the main character isn't exactly overpowered and a running gag involves his poor mana and poor sword skills. I'd guess you classify it as an ecchi comedy but the fan service doesn't play a big role outside of the love interests.

I think a second season is coming around eventually but it's not a series I'll go out of my way to finish up.

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Am I Actually the Strongest is a lighter isekai power fantasy where a guy is reborn as the child of some noble with basically more magic than anyone on the planet. Cute cast with enough action to make things interesting. The element which sticks out the most is the protagonist...has access to streaming anime while living in his new world.

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I found Chillin' in My 30s After Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army enjoyable, if something I probably wouldn't revisit in the future. Dariel is the unappreciated assistant to the general in the demon king's army, the only "demon" who can't cast magic. He gets fired by the general's ungrateful son and ventures into human territory. He soon discovers he's in fact human and uses the skills he picked up managing the Demon king's army in helping a small village.

Several fun recurring gags and the generally light tone works with enough action tossed in for some spice. The anime does have a big change halfway through the series which almost feels like two cours smashed into 12 episodes.

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Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill is an overrated one-trick pony which grew more and more dull with each passing episode. An isekai where the protagonist is gifted the ability...to order any food he wants from Amazon Prime. Amazing the medieval fantasy world he now lives. The premise is actually skillfully handled the first couple episodes before it becomes a fluffy comedy with no real supporting characters beyond a few creatures he tames. I have no interest in watching if/when it continues.

Parallel World Pharmacy is a little better overall but I started losing interest after it became a weird treatise on rival guild businesses. The main character is a medical researcher who dies and gets reborn in a society with little advanced medical knowledge. He's gifted with the ability to literally form complex molecules like antibiotics and other medicines unknown to this world. Rapid shifts in tone and topics as the series wraps with a very dark episode about the Bubonic Plague.

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Finished off The Great Cleric, which I think originally aired last year. A salaryman is killed and gifted healing magic in a new world. While it rarely deviates from your standard power fantasy isekai, the characters are mostly funny enough to keep a viewer interested. I felt the tone was aimed primarily at teenage boys and younger. Nothing I'll revisit but a serviceable first cour.

Maxflier

Started watching Aim For The Ace. Man I love the art style/character designs so much.

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Caught all thirteen episodes of Beast Tamer, generally enjoyed it though by the end the writing and premise had gotten repetitive. A guy is kicked out of the hero's party but soon learns he can tame animal spirits, powerful half animal/half human characters. What soon follows is a friendly harem show with the original hero turning more and more villain. Definitely a show aimed at younger teens if I'm being honest. There's no fan service and light comedy is a big component. Harmless, serviceable fluff with cute characters.

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Totally blown away by Hell's Paradise (Jigokuraku), a 2023 anime from animators MAPPA (Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga, Chainsaw Man, etc). It's another anime adaptation of a Shonen Jump manga series by MAPPA. Beautiful sword and martial arts action series with enough twists to satisfy even the most jaded viewer. This is actually the first MAPPA show I've completely enjoyed, most of their shows are highly overrated. Funnily enough, Hell's Paradise received a somewhat polarizing reaction by fans last year though a second season has already been announced.

The premise basically crosses samurai and ninjas from the Edo period with the American television series Lost - a group of dangerous condemned criminals are given a chance at a pardon if they can retrieve the mythical Elixir of Life (immortality) from a mysterious island filled with dangerous creatures and hidden mysteries. The main protagonist is the powerful Gabimaru, a condemned shinobi with only one purpose in life - returning home to his loving wife.

I found the story quite compelling, even if the character development is a bit sketchy since there are so many primary cast members. I would warn don't check out after the first or second episode, which starts off fairly weak. The series finds its stride soon afterwards. The central premise is just a neat idea, delving into various schools of Asian philosophy.