Time to vote on shows and build our schedule for the Spring season. Will we pick up any simulcasts this time around?
Friday will probably be focused on voting and re-sampling older shows as needed. We may also sample a few Spring shows. Oh, and we'll start with a short feature to tie in with Monday's upcoming total eclipse (not actually a total eclipse anywhere near us, though).
Saturday will need to have some time set aside for actually building the schedule. Aside from that, we may sample a few more Spring shows and perhaps even squeeze in a feature.
6:30 - 7:20 Eclipse short feature: Mushi-shi special: the Shadow that Eats the Sun(CR)
7:20 - 10:30 Voting and re-sampling
As time permits, we may end up sampling some Spring shows such as
Train to the End of the World (CR)
Spice and Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf (CR)
Depending on votes and available time we could even try to squeeze in more episodes of continuing shows such as
The Apothecary Diaries 13+ (CR)
UNDEAD UNLUCK 13+ (Hulu)
Attendance:
Notes: Network streaming seemed a bit iffy, so we started by voting and determining what to re-sample:
1. The Dangers in My Heart ep 2
2. Tis Time for “Torture”, Princess ep 2
3. Brave Bang Bravern ep 2
4. Sasaki and Peeps ep 2
5. Mitsuboshi Colors ep 1 (since pretty much nobody remembered it)
Victor joined after intermission, just in time for Sasaki and Peeps. David took off after Mitsuboshi Colors. At that point, we had re-sampled everything that was on the borderline of being voted in (except for Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy, but Arthur was the one who was curious about re-sampling that and he wasn’t in attendance, so…it was time for either the Mushishi feature or sampling episodes of less-promising shows from the new season.
We started with The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases (CR). I would vote against this purely for hearing my name repeatedly throughout the show - I’d put up with it from Takehito Koyasu, but not otherwise.
We followed that with An Archdemon's Dilemma - How to Love Your Elf Bride (CR).
6:30 - 7:45 Samplers:
A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics (CR)
Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included (CR)
7:45 - 8:10 Schedule-building
8:10 - 8:30
8:30 - 10:30 Feature - depending on time remaining, one of
Eclipse short feature: Mushi-shi special: the Shadow that Eats the Sun (CR);
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (CR); OR
Lonely Castle in the Mirror (BD)
Depending on votes and available time we might try watching Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 17+ (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: We started with schedule-building. At about 7:25 we started the samplers:
* Highspeed Étoile (CR) - bailed on this
* A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics (CR) - People at least laughed at some jokes, but we probably won’t remember anything about this in a few weeks
* Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included (CR) - Like Ah My Goddess, but aggressively mid
* Astro Note (CR) -
* I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince So I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability (CR)
We finished with the Mushishi OVA “The Shadow that Eats the Sun” in honor of Monday’s upcoming eclipse.
Our Spring planning looked a bit like this:
week 0: 4/5 and 4/6
Fridays
Saturdays
More rain this weekend - really just on Saturday, but just in time to make it hard to showings on time.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 3 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 The Apothecary Diaries 13-14 (CR)
7:45 - 8:35 Samplers:
Train to the End of the World (CR)
8:35 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 2-3 (CR)
9:35 - 10:25 UNDEAD UNLUCK 13-14 (Hulu)
Attendance:
Notes: People seemed broadly positive on the samplers, though it's a bit harder to know what to make of Train to the End of the World than Wind Breaker.
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 1 (CR)
6:55 - 7:25 Onimusha 3 (Netflix)
7:25 - 8:15 Samplers:
8:15 - 8:35 intermission
8:35 - 9:25 Metallic Rouge 2-3 (CR)
9:25 - 10:15 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 17-18 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: Sampler-wise, the material for the 1st episode of Gods' Game We Play seemed like it might have worked decently in text, but just wasn't a good fit for animation. Well, it also wasn't very interesting. Tonbo was OK - not particularly entertaining, but not bad in any real sense.
Spy x Family: Code White movie is in theaters this weekend.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 4 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 The Apothecary Diaries 15-15 (CR)
7:45 - 8:35 Samplers:
Spice and Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf (CR)
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night (HD)
8:35 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 4-5 (CR)
9:35 - 10:25 UNDEAD UNLUCK 15-16 (Hulu)
Attendance:
Notes: We didn't get around to discussing if we'd see the Spy x Family movie theatrically, but Steve said he was interested if we did make arrangements to go.
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 2 (CR)
6:55 - 7:25 Onimusha 4 (Netflix)
7:25 - 8:15 Samplers:
8:15 - 8:35 intermission
8:35 - 9:25 Metallic Rouge 4-5 (CR)
9:25 - 10:15 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 19-20 (CR)
Fallback sampler: A Condition Called Love (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: Alan hadn't downloaded an episode of The Fable, so we went with our fallback sampler. We didn't particularly like either of tonight's samplers. Stevezilla called in to see if we had any plans to see the Spy x Family movie, but Alan was unavailable Sunday and neither Brian nor David seemed up for it.
...not a lot to say aabout this week. Sometimes that's a nice change.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 5 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 The Apothecary Diaries 17-18 (CR)
7:45 - 8:35 Samplers:
Go! Go! Loser Ranger! (Hulu/fs)
Mission: Yozakura Family (Hulu/fs)
8:35 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 6-7 (CR)
9:35 - 10:25 UNDEAD UNLUCK 17-18 (Hulu)
Attendance:
Notes: Loser Ranger showed some promise; Yozakura Family...not so mmuch.
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 3 (CR)
6:55 - 7:25 Onimusha 5 (Netflix)
7:25 - 8:15 Sampler:
Dragon Raja -The Blazing Dawn- (CR)
8:15 - 8:35 intermission
8:35 - 9:25 Metallic Rouge 6-7 (CR)
9:25 - 10:15 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 21-22 (CR)
Fallback sampler: The Fable (Hulu/fs)
Attendance:
Notes: Dragon Raja -The Blazing Dawn- starts with a double-length prologue episode that doesn't get to properly introducing the premise of the show. Also, it has a name collision - the Chinese name is romanized as something like “Long Zu”; the name “Dragon Raja” (without the extra bit between hyphens) is also the name of a Korean (web?) novel series, which is apparently much better than this.
GKids has a French animated SF movie in theaters this weekend: Mars Express. Oh, also this Saturday is the first one in May, which means it’s Free Comic Book Day.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 6 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 The Apothecary Diaries 19-20 (CR)
7:45 - 8:35 Samplers:
8:35 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 8-9 (CR)
9:35 - 10:25 UNDEAD UNLUCK 19-20 (Hulu)
Attendance:
Notes:
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 4 (CR)
6:55 - 7:25 Onimusha 6 (Netflix)
7:25 - 8:15 Sampler:
Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again (CR)
8:15 - 8:35 intermission
8:35 - 9:25 Metallic Rouge 8-9 (CR)
9:25 - 10:15 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 23-24 (CR)
Fallback sampler: As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: Alan got sick Saturday morning and didn't make it to showings. The Saturday folks skipped The Fable because it was on Hulu and Alan hadn't provided an alternate source. Grandpa and Grandma got bailed on, but the club finished the Appraisal show.
Mars Express was still in theaters for a few more days, so a couple of us went to see it.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 7 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 The Apothecary Diaries 21-22 (CR)
7:45 - 8:35 Samplers:
Girls Band Cry (fs)
Blue Archive the Animation (fs)
8:35 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 10-11 (CR)
9:35 - 10:25 UNDEAD UNLUCK 21-22 (Hulu)
Attendance:
Notes: David was remote tonight.
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 5 (CR)
6:55 - 8 Onimusha 7-8 (Netflix)
8 - 8:25 Sampler: whichever sampler we didn't watch last week, from
Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again (CR)
As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World(CR)
8:25 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 Metallic Rouge 10-11 (CR)
9:35 - 10:25 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 25-26 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes:
Finishing out a bunch of shows this week, starting new shows next week (and a couple his Saturday).
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 8 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 The Apothecary Diaries 23-24 (CR)
7:45 - 8:30 Samplers, part 1: The Grimm Variations (Netflix)
8:30 - 8:40 intermission
8:40 - 9:05 Samplers, part 2: YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master(CR)
9:05 - 9:30 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 12 (CR)
9:30 - 10:20 UNDEAD UNLUCK 23-24 (Hulu)
Attendance:
Notes: David was remote tonight. The sampler Grimm Variations wasn’t to much of the club’s taste, but Steve liked it.
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 6 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 Kimetsu no Yaiba - Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc 1 (CR)
7:45 - 8:10 Metallic Rouge 12 (CR)
8:10 - 8:30 intermission
9:30 - 10:20 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 27-28 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes:
We’re starting our 2nd half of the season shows this weekend. On Saturday we’re finishing out Metallic Rouge, our last straggler from the 1st half of the season. We’ve been curious about how it came to be, since it seems to be 18-20 episodes worth of ideas folded, spindled, and mutilated into 13 episodes of runtime; fortunately Crunchyroll surfaced a 4-episode documentary of sorts on Studio BONES’s 25th anniversary, the final episode of which is apparently focused on Metallic Rouge as representing the future of BONES. So that’s lined up for this Saturday as well.
Aside from that, it’s Memorial Day weekend and there’s basically nothing anime-related going on - at least here in the LA area. Momocon is streaming their AMVs on Twitch this weekend at https://www.twitch.tv/momoconamvs.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 9 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 Sengoku Youko 2-3 (CR)
7:45 - 8:20 Samplers:
Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction (CR)
8:20 - 8:30 intermission
8:30 - 8:55 Delicious in Dungeon 2 (Netflix)
8:55 - 9:45 My Happy Marriage 3-4 (Netflix)
9:45 - 10:25 Daily Life of the Immortal King S4 40-41 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes:
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 7 (CR)
6:55 - 7:20 Kimetsu no Yaiba - Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc 2 (CR)
7:20 - 7:45 Metallic Rouge 13 (CR)
7:45 - 8:10 Short feature
BONES 25: Dreaming Forward ep 4 "Metallic Rouge - The Future of BONES" (CR)
8:10 - 8:30 intermission
9:35 - 10:25 Mashle: Magic and Muscles - The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc 13-14 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: We bailed on the BONES special because some folks felt it was too likely to be purely promotional to provide any insight on what went wrong with Metallic Rouge. We proceeded to sample THE NEW GATE (CR).
Not a lot of news this week. But here's an analysis of Netflix 2023 viewership data with respect to anime.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 10 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 Sengoku Youko 4-5 (CR)
7:45 - 8:35 Delicious in Dungeon 3-4 4-5 (Netflix)
8:35 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 My Happy Marriage 5-6 (Netflix)
9:35 - 10:15 Daily Life of the Immortal King S4 42-43 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: Steve figures he'll be very late next week - his school's junior high graduation is next Friday, so he won’t likely be available until 9 or 9:15. He doubts he’ll make it in person. Alan will be picking up a friend from LAX that morning, and he may still be visiting with the family later that day - we’re likely to make Friday showings fully remote.
We also talked about how My Happy Marriage was the most popular anime on Netflix in 2nd half 2023 (at least by hours watched): https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2024-05-29/anime-overperforms-an-analysis-of-netflix-2023-viewership-data/.211255.
PS: Delicious in Dungeon episodes were off by one - we were supposed to watch 3-4, but seem to have skipped 3...
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 8 (CR)
6:55 - 7:20 Kimetsu no Yaiba - Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc 3 (CR)
7:20 - 8:10 Samplers:
Mysterious Disappearances (CR)
8:10 - 8:30 intermission
9:35 - 10:25 Mashle: Magic and Muscles - The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc 15-16 (CR)
Fallback sampler: Unnamed Memory (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: Brian lost track of time, so he attended remotely tonight. Alan made it partway through Laid-Back Camp. Victor arrived at break.
David figures he’ll be fully remote next Friday as well, so Friday showings next week might as well be fully remote.
We finished both scheduled samplers, but weren’t really impressed much by either of them. Well, Vampire Dormitory did cause a reaction when it turned out the premised which seemed like it was going for some sort of BL-vampire-and-bloodbag setup involved a girl who's been crossdressing as a boy for no apparent reason, hiding her very long hair under a short-haired wig somehow (rather than just cutting her own hair?!). Mysterious Disappearances is the sort of show which seems like it should have been interesting but somehow just wasn't.
Japanese Film Festival Online is running for the next few week, and has some anime-relevant movies. Also Anime Expo has managed to post their full schedule a full month in advance - and on their website, at that!
This week Gainax declared they were going bankrupt. End of an era.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 11 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 Sengoku Youko 6-7 (CR)
7:45 - 8:35 Delicious in Dungeon 5-6 6-7 (Netflix)
8:35 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 My Happy Marriage 7-8 (Netflix)
9:35 - 10:15 Daily Life of the Immortal King S4 44-45 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: Tonight was fully remote - David didn’t expect to make it, and Steve wasn’t available until around 9 (halfway through the first episode of My Happy Marriage). BTW, listed episode numbers for Delicious in Dungeon were off by one. It looks like we skipped episode 3 last week…
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 9 (CR)
6:55 - 7:20 Kimetsu no Yaiba - Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc 4 (CR)
7:20 - 8:10 Samplers:
Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers (CR)
8:10 - 8:30 intermission
9:35 - 10:25 Mashle: Magic and Muscles - The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc 17-18 (CR)
Fallback sampler: The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: Crunchyroll totally died on us partway through Laid-Back Camp, and it wasn’t able to load any shows, even when going directly to a show’s URL. We ended up going to Netflix, our only scheduled show for the night on another service. Demon Slayer made it most of the way through before Crunchyroll crashed again, but we came back after break and it seemed fine.
The first sampled (Unnamed Memory) seemed okayish, but nothing special. Our 2nd sampler (Level 2 Cheat Skill) was at least somewhat amusing to heckle. Crunchyroll had a few more issues, but seemed to get a bit more stable throughout the night.
We’re back to hosting some folks in-person at Alan’s this Friday. There is something unusual about our schedule this week, though - it looks like we accidentally skipped episode 3 of Delicious in Dungeon a couple weeks back (I could have sworn Netflix showed it as played…), so we’re watching that tonight along with episode 8. We’re also watching the final episode of Bravern this Friday, freeing up time for some final Friday samplers at the end of the season.
6:30 - 6:55 Brave Bang Bravern! 12 (CR)
6:55 - 7:45 Sengoku Youko 8-9 (CR)
7:45 - 8:35 Delicious in Dungeon 3, 8 (Netflix)
8:35 - 8:45 intermission
8:45 - 9:35 My Happy Marriage 9-10 (Netflix)
9:35 - 10:15 Daily Life of the Immortal King S4 46-47 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: We had in fact skipped Delicious in Dungeon episode 3 previously, which became very clear when we actually watched it tonight.
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 10 (CR)
6:55 - 7:20 Kimetsu no Yaiba - Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc 5 (CR)
7:20 - 8:10 Samplers:
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio (CR)
8:10 - 8:30 intermission
9:35 - 10:25 Mashle: Magic and Muscles - The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc 19-20 (CR)
Fallback sampler: Viral Hit (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: No problems from Crunchyroll this week. Alan had to be remote tonight.
We finished Bravern last week, which means our we’ll start our Fridays with Sengoku Youko for the rest of the season - not that there’s much of the season left; we finish out next week (6/28 and 6/29), skip the 4th of July/Anime Expo weekend of 7/5 and 7/6, and go into week 0 of Summer of 7/12 and 7/13. We might want to start looking at the voting spreadsheet and figuring out if there are any shows we want to add there. We also have a bunch of older shows listed for consideration, but for those we’ll need someone to maybe provide a brief description of the show or figure out a good episode for the club to sample. I’ve added an Advocate column for that.
6:30 - 7:20 Sengoku Youko 10-11 (CR)
7:20 - 8:10 Delicious in Dungeon 9-10 (Netflix)
8:10 - 8:20 intermission
8:20 - 8:50 Sampler: T・P BON (Netflix)
8:50 - 9:40 My Happy Marriage 11-12 (Netflix)
9:40 - 10:20 Daily Life of the Immortal King S4 48-49 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: T • P Bon (aka Time Patrol Bon) was well-produced, but the eponymous organization’s behavior was too callous for most of us.
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 11 (CR)
6:55 - 7:20 Kimetsu no Yaiba - Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc 6 (CR)
7:20 - 8:10 Samplers:
8:10 - 8:30 intermission
9:35 - 10:25 Mashle: Magic and Muscles - The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc 21-22 (CR)
Fallback sampler: Rinkai! (fs)
Attendance:
Notes: We bailed on Viral Hit within about 1-2 minutes after the opening. We also bailed on Tadaima, Okaeri about halfway through the episode leaving us time to sample Rinkai! That one we actually finished, not that we were particularly impressed by it either.
This is the final week of our Spring showings. Next week is Anime Expo (and incidentally the 4th of July weekend), and we expect enough people to be occupied with the convention that we won’t have any showings that week. That gives us time to figure out which shows we want on our voting spreadsheet for week 0 (July 12 and 13) and who if anyone wants to advocate for specific older shows.
About this whole idea of advocacy for older shows: it’s going to involve picking out a specific episode for the club to sample, so we don’t really have time for any one person to advocate for more than 1 or maybe 2 different shows. It also involves making an informed suggestion on what portion of the show we should vote on: in terms of length perhaps a full season run of 24-26 episodes, a half-season run of 12-13 episodes, or some more unusual length; and perhaps even an idea of whether the suggestion is to watch the show in order or to curate a selection of episodes for more episodic shows.
6:30 - 7:20 Sengoku Youko 12-13 (CR)
7:20 - 8:10 Delicious in Dungeon 11-12 (Netflix)
8:10 - 8:20 intermission
8:20 - 8:50 Samplers:
Suicide Squad Isekai (Hulu/fs)
8:50 - 9:40 My Happy Marriage OAD (fs)
9:40 - 10:20 Daily Life of the Immortal King S4 50-51 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: There's a consensus in the club that Daily Life of the Immortal King has pretty much run out of steam.
6:30 - 6:55 Laid-Back Camp S3 ep 12 (CR)
6:55 - 7:35 Kimetsu no Yaiba - Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc 7 (CR)
7:35 - 8:05 Sampler: Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf (Netflix)
8:05 - 8:25 intermission
9:40 - 10:30 Mashle: Magic and Muscles - The Divine Visionary Candidate Exam Arc 23-24 (CR)
Attendance:
Notes: Last-minute issues meant Alan had to attend remotely. There's one last episode of the Kimetsu no Yaiba season, to be finished in Summer season after Anime Expo.