So now that the weather’s turning, I’m watching more anime, but since nothing this season grabbed me, I’m reaching back into the past some more. With sort of interesting results.

I watched Renai Flops early in the week. It was a fine example of a decent idea poorly executed. The set-up is a fairly ludicrous and contrived harem story that tediously hits on all the tropes, then there’s a big reveal that changes the direction of the story and makes all of the early silliness make sense. And it does a decent job of that all in all, with one gigantic flaw - the reveal comes far too late (in episode 8 IIRC). So the first two-thirds of the series is tedious and wearing, and the last third is rushed and therefore shallow and unsatisfying. It was okay all in all, once I trudged through the earlier episodes, but it could’ve been much better with better pacing.

Then I finished up Metallic Rouge, which was okay. Very stylish and a decently told and decently interesting story, but just somehow sort of drab overall in spite of that.

Then, most recently, I watched Renkin San-Kyuu Magical Pokaan, which was a lot of fun. I stumbled on it looking for something that was just unapologetically silly and weird - I have a soft spot for animes like that (e.g. Nichijou, Pani Poni Dash, Azumanga Daioh…) And it’s definitely that. And an odd thing came of it. I’ve never really understood the appeal of furries, but I got some insight into that with Liru, who’s just an outstanding character design. While I’m too old and jaded for her to awaken an entirely new kink, I can absolutely see how it’s likely that if I was younger and more impressionable, she definitely would’ve done that. And, I have no doubt, did do that for an awful lot of people back in the day.

And at the moment, I’m watching Akudama Drive, which is okay. I love the artstyle, but overall, it’s just in a weird middle ground - too over-the-top to take it seriously but too serious to treat as a satire. If it was less serious, it could be Kill la Kill, and if it was more serious it could be Ergo Proxy, but it’s neither. It’s okay, bit so far nothing special.