Fall is here! A couple shows have already aired their first episodes and most of the rest are starting this week. I hope that everybody finds something fun to watch this season! In case you wanted to browse the airing shows, here is a list:
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Meta Update
It’s been a while since I last made a meta post, so I guess we are due. With the start of the Fall 2024 season, I was reminded that it was during the Fall 2023 season that I created this account and began posting to this community. So, it seems like an appropriate time to reflect and take stock of where things are.
Overall, I have been very pleased with the continued growth of the community. I remember starting out where it felt like it was just me and a couple others posting things that nobody else saw; yelling out into an empty void. So, it is always exciting to me when people are making posts and having conversations in the comments in which I was not involved at all. We have grown to be the most subscribed-to community on ani.social with far and away the most comments/discussion. Keep it up everybody!
An important part of this community, our resident bot @rikka@ani.social, has also been seen in a generally positive light (or at least I haven’t gotten complaints). The very beginning of a season is always a little weird with the bot because the api it uses is being edited a lot as things like broadcast schedules or streaming links get sorted out in the first 1-2 weeks. So, please bear with her as she gets herself sorted out this season as well.
Something else I wanted to mention was the success of having some shows run their own discussion threads in a separate community. The first of these was !dungeonmeshi@ani.social running their own discussion threads, followed by !nokotan@ani.social. Thank you to both @MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz and @sag@lemm.ee for your contributions! Also, for those unaware, episode discussion threads for the upcoming Dan Da Dan are going to be run in !dandadan@ani.social by @GordonFreeman@ani.social this coming season. I hope you all check them out!
Finally, a hearty thank you to all of you users for the content you have and will hopefully continue to contribute to this community. I consider this community as one of the more successful and sustainable examples of community building in the fediverse. Here’s hoping that I can write an update like this one come Fall 2025.
Hi newcomers! Welcome!! You might see me around in most/all of the discussion threads for a week or two because I’m the sort of unhinged person who watches everything to start off (it gets trimmed down FAST, lol). Since it seemed to work last time, I’m going to continue to not have rikka make posts for stuff I don’t plan on continuing to watch, and instead review them in these threads.
Even with my hectic summer, I managed to finish my shows before fall started, yay! Here’s my thoughts:
Alya Hides Her Feelings - 6/10
What could have been a strong romance anime sort of devolved into one part harem comedy (why??) and one part student council drama (and no parts romance). I really just wanted them to have an almost kiss or some sort of progress, seriously. The student council stuff was sort of interesting, but it kind of overwhelmed the back half of the season. I guess if/when it gets a season 2 I’ll see how I feel at the time. The two mains are really cute together, but I can’t stand a romance in a holding pattern.
Shoshimin - 10/10
Absolutely incredible, start to finish. The character writing was amazing, the dumb little mysteries were a delight (the charlotte episode was a standout for me), and the big plotline at the end both felt like a culmination and delivered on the excellent mystery writing the series had built up so far, but on a larger scale. The leads parting ways could have ruined the season, but instead it felt natural and I’m excited to see what happens next. While I wait, I might have to finally go check out Hyouka.
Twilight Out of Focus - 7/10
A cute little anime with big ambitions, but falls a little short. I think it’s cool that it tries to be so cinematic when the story revolves around the film club. The problem is that it’s just so cheesy all of the time, lol. I enjoyed watching it (except the third couple, who I hate together), but I don’t know that I could really recommend it. It’s at least nice to have more gay anime that’s not full of consent issues, though.
Yatagarasu - 9/10
How were more people not watching this one?? This was a fantastic show, with some shocking and (mostly) earned twists, that delivers a story better than its source material could. It nails both the little character moments and the broader mysteries, and hints toward future plotlines I’m very sad we may never see in anime form, if this is as unpopular as it looks. Seriously, go watch it if you like imperial court dramas.
Bonus: Odd Taxi - 6/10
My friends and I watched this together (one of us had seen it before and insisted), and after hearing many, many recommendations for it, I sort of expected to be more wowed by it. IDK, I wasn’t ever really attached to any of the characters and it felt like the mysteries weren’t really built up in a way where you’d have that satisfying “oh, if I’d paid more attention I could have figured that out!” moment. The most invested I ever got was the few episodes where I thought Kakihana was about to be killed, but they deprived me of even that small joy, lol. I also felt like some of the twists at the end - Odokawa’s brain damage in particular - ultimately didn’t really matter to the story and felt like a twist for twist’s sake. But I think a biggest problems I had are that I’m both a slow reader and a hater of manzai-style comedy, so to me the dialogue was hard to follow and dull - I found out too late that the anime actually has a dub, which I think would have solved one of those problems, but I’m not sure if it would have fully fixed the show for me. I know a lot of people really like this show, and I’m glad y’all have something you really enjoy, but ultimately I don’t think it’s as good as people build it up to be.
My friends and I are still working through their three picks for this season (otokonoko, dahlia, and elusive samurai) because we run a couple weeks late, but i expect high scores on two of those (sorry dahlia, lol) when we finally finish them.