Alderamin on the Sky 1-6 (7/10) - I'm a little torn on this show. I have it rated fairly high, mostly due to the protagonist being intelligent and generally likeable. I have a general idea of where the story is going but it seems to be taking it's sweet time getting there. I'm hoping there's gonna be a second season or something because otherwise, I have a feeling the second half is either gonna be rushed or end on a cliff-hanger. Also, I wish they would get around to explaining the deal with the spirits. While cute, they don't seem to serve any narrative purpose and just come off as random replacements to some technology.
Arslan Senki 1-6 (8/10) - Shows about the wars between kingdoms and battles of succession are always interesting to me. Honestly, my main complaint with this show is just how naive Arslan is and how useless he is in most instances. Seeing as he's supposed to be some hero of legend it's a little odd that the only thing he has to bring to the table is his "royal" blood. That said, I don't dislike him and his entourage are fully aware of his shortcomings and make up for them. So in general, I really like the show, but the title should probably be something more along the lines of "The Bromantic Legend of Narsus and Daryun". It's sad that the show only has 2 more episodes left.
Kyoukai No Rinne 1-17 (6/10) - There's nothing that stands out as being bad about this anime but there's nothing especially good about it either. It's kinda just there. That said, I find the slapstick comedy good enough to push it just above average. It also feels like I'm the only person in the western world watching this show, which I find kinda surprising. It's also surprising it manages to get 25 episodes every season. Popular in Japan maybe?
Shokugeki no Souma 1-7 (7/10) - Me liking this show is quite an anomaly for me. So one of my biggest pet peeves in anime (and manga/video games) are scenes featuring cooking and/or people eating something and exclaiming about how amazing it is. I don't know if this is some government mandated thing in Japan or what, but it's a trope that shows up in literally every anime (it might be closer to 95% but it's a lot in any case). I've seen it so often, in so many different types of shows that I just find it plain annoying at this point. Enter Souma. A show that takes that trope and goes all in on it. Despite my continued disinterest in the cooking and food commentary, I still enjoy watching this show. I mostly just really like the characters (minus Erina) and I, in general, like the specialized school setting in anime. This seasons heavy focus on the cook-offs is a little disappointing though which is why it has a slightly lower score than the past season thus far (which I gave a 8), but I also like that they are fleshing out some of the lesser seen characters from the first season. That said, if they weren't spending so much time on these cook-offs, they probably could have better fleshed out said characters. Seems a little rushed atm.
Masou Gakuen HxH 1-4 (4/10) - Dropped. I keep watching these shows hoping for a High School DxD , Trinity Seven, ect level harem anime. This show is not that. In general, the exoskeleton suit combat is just a hard sell for me as I don't think I've ever seen one of those shows that I like. The protagonist not being an extreme beta is nice but this show just relies too much on the ecchi. The characters and plot simply aren't interesting enough (the plot just feels too try-hard in attempting to give you an emotional attachment to the characters) and ecchi by itself is just bad hentai. At the very least it has my respect for going all in on the ecchi content and not covering it all up with clip-art nonsense or light bars.
Taboo Tattoo 1-6 (6/10) - This show is weird. In general, I like the premise and the fight sequences aren't bad but the show is just kinda all over the place. One moment, it's serious blood splattering violence, the next it's happy fun ecchi times. It also seems to be rushing through the plot so the show has been progressively getting worse with each episode imo. It's also one of those shows where the villains go around murdering fools like they're insects but when the protagonist has the chance to take them out, they can't/won't because that's not what heroes do...
Tales of Zestiria the X 1-5 (6/10) - So I played the game and thought is was firmly a meh game. Didn't like the story (humanity vs. nature plots are usually uninteresting to me, especially if they're black and white), the characters were mostly just alright but nothing bad (Alisha was just plain boring but I found no one to be annoying), and the gameplay was pretty lackluster. I'm expecting the show to basically be that so I don't see it going much higher than the above average score I have for it now but maybe trimming out all the grinding and long-winded narrative of the game will have me like the characters more. That said, I imagine they won't be as fleshed out as they are in the game (with maybe the exception of Alisha, whom I still find boring btw), but we'll see. Could've done without the Berseria advert.
Re:Zero 1-18 (4/10) - Dropped. I've said my piece on this show here and elsewhere.
D.Gray-man Hallow (?/10) - Plan to watch. It's been a long time since I've seen the first anime and read the manga (which I kept up with for a little while after the anime finished). I have pretty bad memory so I usually go and rewatch prior seasons if an anime restarts with a large time gap between seasons. Problem is, first season is 103 episodes. I'll get this eventually though as I liked the first season.
