"We return from our recent escapades into circlejerking and political commentary back to the things that truly matter: Anime-Opinions!" ;3

What is this about?

This will be the first in a series of index posts that aim to help others navigate what I write for more regular reference as opposed to the one-off ventures into variety blogging I mention above. Just like my various playlists, this series of posts will look like a large, multi-tiered mobile, once I'm done. (The kinetic sculpture; not the wireless phone.)

This time:

Anime-Opinions

One fateful day I thought: "You know what? The world sucks, people suck, and I have no patience left for all the "real" projects I was originally planning to do. This might as well be my last post on NG, so let's leave people with something timeless and useful. A spoiler free Top 13 for the anime series in 2024 aught to do the trick."

Rankings 2024:

• Yatsufusa's Top 13 Anime Series in 2024 (Spoiler Free!) [2024-12-12]

Rankings 2025:

• Yatsufusa's Anime Ramble (Q1 2025) (Mostly Spoiler Free!) [2025-03-25]

• Yatsufusa's Anime Ramble (Q1 2025) (Spoiler Free!) (Ecchi-Appendix) [2025-04-11] [Rated "A" for Adults only!]

• Yatsufusa's Early Anime Overview (Q2 2025) (Spoiler Free!) [2025-04-13]

• Yatsufusa's Early Anime Overview (Q2 2025) (Spoiler Free!) (Ecchi-Appendix) [2025-04-17] [Rated "A" for Adults only!]

• Yatsufusa's Anime Overview Catch-Up (Q2 2025) (Spoiler Free!) [2025-05-13]

Surveys and Discussions:

• Do you like Anime? [2025-04-10]

Western Animation-Opinions

"Them European animés..." ;)

I usually cover western animation (as in "animation from the Western Hemisphere") as more of a side-dish on articles covering recent anime releases. While series, movies, one-shots and specials do come out frequently, for me they are usually more a case of "Oh, this looks 'decent'. If I had 12 more hours per day I might get around to watching those at 'some' point..."

I would like to point out that part of this is due to me being an adult with a very developed palate when it comes to animation and movies. The last movie that I watched and thought was "good" was The Outfit (2022), but I think the movie industry allowed that one to be good by accident. The last good movie I watched before that was The Spy Gone North (2018). What I'm saying is: If you are very much into western animation, you will likely be able to find recommendations for very watchable series that will be worth your time. But I will not cover enough of those to fill your evenings with western animation by any stretch of the imagination. I'm happy if you enjoy those short articles of mine, but I would strongly recommend that you should look for another source.

Full Articles:

• Yatsufusa's Western Animation Overview Catch-Up (Q2 2025) (Spoiler Free!) [2025-05-13]

Articles containing Sections about Western Animation:

• Yatsufusa's Anime Ramble (Q1 2025) (Mostly Spoiler Free!) [2025-05-25]

• Yatsufusa's Early Anime Overview (Q2 2025) (Spoiler Free!) [2025-04-13]

Next predicted Dates for Post:

I write "predicted", because of the various man-made catastrophes that could get in the way of my scheduling. Despite how it might appear to some, my time for NG is actually limited and I cannot just magically make long, comprehensible articles appear. Except for that one time, I hold myself to the same standards I would expect from others.

("Festive" posts are likely to manifest no matter what - because they are short and easy to write.)

• 2025-07-13: Anime Top 13 for Q2 of 2025

• 2025-07-25 or 2025-08-01: Discussion (with interested users) about the extend of my future anime coverage

( If you already have feedback about the structure of this very post, or something else I recommend you to write yourself some notes now, while you can still remember. ;) )

( Users who reacted to more than one of the posts listed here, will be notified in the post via @. If you suspect that qualify but do not want a public notification, drop me a short PM saying so. It should go without saying that a removal after the fact is also possible, but I thought I might as well use the opportunity to mention it. )

( Note that said discussion might dramatically change the schedule for 2025 after this point. )

• 2025-08-13: Early anime coverage for Q3 of 2025

• 2025-??-??: Some collective piece about Western Animation, "probably." ;)

• 2025-10-13: Early anime coverage for Q3 of 2025

• 2025-12-13: Anime Top 13 for 2025

• 2026-02-13: Friday the 13th

• 2026-03-13: Friday the 13th

• 2026-11-13: Friday the 13th

• 2027-08-13: Friday the 13th

• 2053-02-13: Friday the 13th

• 2053-06-13: End of civilization as we know it (optimistic estimate)

Please Note: Last time I've made a "roadmap", something bad happened. This time, I came prepared: Trained rats have hidden a small, remotely detonated bomb in the server rack that stores NG's forums.

Best case scenario: Nothing bad will happen.

Worst case scenario: Nothing of value will be lost! ;D

Announced dates for upcoming Anime:

"Everybody is always afraid of 'dark' forces, but you know:

It's hope that kills you every fucking time."

 – Conrad Zimmerman, Mercenary Creative, The Spin-off Doctors: Silent Hill

• 2026-01-??: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

• 2026-??-??: 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess

• 20??-??-??: [A lot of other series that have been "announced"] ( search for "CATS" ;3 )

See Also

What is "Anime"? (Wikipedia)

Last Edited: 2025-06-27

Please Note: Due to the nature of this article, there will (most likely) be no "Addendums" here.

(Did you ever wonder what my posts would look like if I wrote them 10 minutes before I was going to fall into bed and had zero preparation and no plan for what I would write...?)

So... As many of you might know by now, this happened.

Best case scenario: Impeachment after 146 days into office.

Worst case scenario: No more Newgrounds "due to bombs."

NG is headquartered in Glenside, USA.

All I am saying is that if you greatly value certain pieces of art, having those stored safely on your harddrive beats trying to find them again under difficult circumstances and based on half-forgotten artist names and titles.

If you are in the mood to discuss the political implications anywhere, as always: Find someplace else*; I'm not moderating that. Or you can feel free to start your own News Post about it. Just do not invite me.

* Such as:

For Clarity - by @SkankyMojo

Better not. - by @WinWarr

whatsup folx - by @Boss (a dedicated space for discussions)

War~ - by @Jojo (This one is less of a discussion and more of a sensible statement...)

Brief interruption of land/art posts - by @ShadenLines (Also pointing out that Iran is not exactly a nice country...)

Addendum 2025-06-23: I'm leaving the original News Post in "the state" it was in at its inception - because I like to display my writing sins in public... Just two changes: I will be expanding the list of links to related posts (because y'all do not take enough advantage of the tag-feature.)

And I also would like to add the following, because apparently some people just cannot think particularly far:

I am not a fan of Iran (or Palestine, for that matter). However, I am not blaming the people for the shortcomings and shortsighted decisions of those in power. It is the regime they are forced to live under that is the real problem - not completely unlike the situation in the United States of America...

Right now it is the people in Iran who suffer. They were just in the unfortunate position of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Imagine the following: You'd have to move to another country, find a place to stay, find a job there, move everything you own, say goodbye to your friends, get granted citizenship, etc... If that was easy, then several millions of US Americans would be several millions of Canadians now!

Now imagine the same situation, but you need to move all your family as well as their earthly possessions by plane. But you do not speak the language of where you want to move to, are less educated compared to the people who live there, and your life savings do not even cover the fraction of the cost of the plane ticket (and paperwork). Plus: You are currently citizen in a regime that ranks right next to Russia on the Freedom Index! Do you think they would let you leave, just like that?

Another one of the big problems with Trump's decision is that the statement "[Nation X] should not be allowed to have 'the atomic bomb'." applies to a lot of nations. And by "a lot" I of course mean "all of them"! The way forward for humanity is disarmament - nuclear and otherwise.

Logic and compassion, science and art - those are what guides the way to a future worth living in. Not "I have the bigger stick! Surrender unconditionally or die! What are you gonna do...?" Because, inevitably, somebody else is going to get their hands on a bigger stick or hit you from behind! And then you'll have hell to pay... (Especially if you already alienated all of your former allies.)

Addendum 2025-06-24: Today I received a PM from a user who cited the Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox "News", as a source. For the few readers who weren't aware: They are a right-wing propaganda-machine that intentionally spreads misinformation and has a whole lot of other issues, Including, but not limited to, climate change denial, downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic, false claims about the 2020 election, the list is too long to feature here... As of June 2024, Fox News and its talk shows are considered "generally unreliable sources for scientific and political coverage" by Wikipedia.

On top of that, the network has been repeatedly accused of permitting sexual harassment and racial discrimination.

Please get your news and news-related information from a real news agency!

'Tis the 13th!

Frankly, I am not a fan of circlejerk posts. On the other hand, I read an obscene number of News Posts and have done so for quite a while, giving me a good overview of what the quality of an average post is like... (Spoilers: Abysmal!)

So I thought: I might not have the most complete overview of the last months, because life has not been kind to me - but on the other hand there had been some delays over at the @TheTankTribune so there might be a bit more of a demand for "self-referential Newgrounds-stuff".

I will list the "most relevant"/"best" Blog/News Posts "of recent memory". I'll keep the definition hazy because I'm not that professional and because there are no prior posts from me in that regard, so it would not be unfair to include posts from a bit longer ago, since there would be no overlap.

And speaking of fairness...

Conditions

Just to make sure this happens fairly and transparently... I considered keeping the exact process more of a secret, but I thought making it more transparent could "inspire some thoughts". On top of that I like that I receive very little backlash* for the things I do and explaining my reasoning will help with keeping it like that.

* There is a little feedback every now and then and there are "requests to be reported and put on my block list" - which I usually grant. Who am I to get in the way of somebody's happiness if there are no downsides for anybody else... ;)

- I will not list my own posts. Obviously!

- Tutorials and guide posts will not be considered. Not because they wouldn't be worth reading, but if we're perfectly honest, many of those should be Wiki-articles or something similar. (We just don't have an open wiki.) They aren't really "blog" entries and could have their own list that's less focused on recent works. (My apologies to @ShangXian, who will be most affected by this decision.)

- Posts that serve as announcements or coverage for Collabs, meetups, or similar organizational things will not be considered.

- If a post is just a link or a collection of pictures from other artists they will not find their way into this list - even if they are profound, funny, or a clever and biting remark about the NG community. (Yes, those actually exist.)

- Posts that could be answered or otherwise resolved by referring to the official Newgrounds FAQ, or my first FAQ, or "You should ask your peers in the forums - not the void.", or "Only a Moderator of the Portal in question could give you a definitive answer to that.", or any other "one line reply" will not be considered.

- Pleas for help due to unemployment will not be considered. I feel for you, but in the end, that is (potentially) a periodical issue that could likely return the next month - as opposed to a one and done-deal. On top of that, relying on NG's community to pay your rent is an unsustainable play. I am very aware that there are times where you cannot do anything because you are waiting for replies, but that's what regular/discounted commissions are for. (I feel like 50% of the US commission posts I see are "emergency commissions". At this point, "emergencies" are the norm.)

- News Posts that are rated "A" (or should be rated "A") will not be considered. Because a significant part of my readers is underage or filters out "A"-related works. In the end, I want this post to be read. But pointing at something "A"- related and then saying "but 'the post you are currently reading' is rated 'under' that age - because I can 'get away with it'" is problematic. (And any mature adult would understand that.)

(This entire post could have been rated "E"; as could all the News Posts I linked to. The "T"-rating is a concession towards the artists who felt extra-careful. At the end of the day, everyone with an account here is old enough to read "T"-rated post anyway...)

- News Posts featured in my (Very) Adult Humor series of playlists (starting with [#003]) will also not be considered, even if they are rightfully rated "E". "This is this and that is that." They had their time in the spotlight from me.

- Spam posts would have no chance anyway, but just to be clear: Posting a "meme" or funny joke will not be considered, unless it happens to be a piece of art that you actually created yourself start to finish.

- News Posts that are about "interpersonal drama" will also not be considered, because, ultimately, those should have been Reports, PMs, or emails to begin with! "Us agreeing with you" doesn't change a bloody things. If somebody did something that requires intervention, ask the Moderators or staff for help - or (depending on what went down) your regionally responsible law enforcement. Even accounts of artist who did... "bad things" on other sites were deleted. Do you really think any abuser would be safe here?

- Any posts with cute animal photos are disqualified. Otherwise this would probably be 50% @Reganati & @SouSTAR posts. ;3

(What kind of campus do the French run where you meet 2 individual wild bunnies and a cat on the same day. There has to be a law against that... How do the French get anything done with cute animals everywhere? ;p )

- I doubt anybody gives enough of a damn about this list to try and manipulate their inclusion in future listings of this kind, but just to be on the safe side (and for future-proofing): The comment section of said News Posts and whether or not I participated in said comment section will have zero influence on the listing. What's considered is the initial post by the original author as well as any updates made to it.

Acknowledgement

Before I get to the actual ranking, I'd like to give thanks to @ShangXian for emotional support. Thank you for being there.

Ranking

#13

send help - by @magianfellow

This is the difference between a "person with a program who wants to make something" and an artist. ;)

#12

Hate web 3 - by @blushy-boy

Lack of follow-up aside, I think this is a good example of how one can announce their arrival/resumed activity on NG. (It certainly beats "I forgot about this site"-posts...)

#11

How drawing today went - by @KontraVersus

Very expressive, emotional, memorable, and original!

(Please Note: If you just copy this, you are not "original".)

#10

priDE MONth - by @TheGarbager619

There have been a ton of "Happy Pride Month" posts. Most of them were attempts to make "I said something"-posts - without actually saying anything. The rest seemed pretty genuine, but many did not have that much to say either. In the end, I had the choice between 3 posts that looked the most "feature-worthy" and @TheGarbager619 wrote the most important post of those three.

#9

2022: Every Day Ranked - by @S3C

It was interesting to see such a statistic for the first time and from my perspective he's quite a happy fellow. ;)

#8

Another day, another surgery - by @DrSevenSeizeMD

Personally, I'm just glad that her surgery went well. But I also enjoyed this bit:

"I'm gonna tell people I got it from a knife fight with Tom."

 – DrSevenSeizeMD, September 13th, 2024

And now you know a bit of Newgrounds-history. ;3

#7

Got in an Accident! (Help) - by @Porter

Porter had a car accident. No one got hurt but the adults in the room will know how essential having a working car becomes. And the total car repair bill is $2500! If you were looking to commission some art maybe have a look and see if his work appeals to you.

(Half of the repair bill has been covered since he made that initial post. See Update! +More updates for the update.)

#6

Animators! What's Your View Rank? NG Facts, Stats & Figures - by @alsoknownas1

I would slogan-ize NG's status like this:

"Newgrounds! – Not 'just' an adult site..."

That's right: The statistics that were presented confirm what has been clear for many years: Newgrounds.com is a website that can be configured to be "Family Friendly" (which is something completely different than "For Kids"). But at its core, NG is not for people under the age of 16. The simple problems I see our younger user base struggle with regularly make it clear that almost all of them are not ready for the adult's table. (Some of them are not even ready for the internet...)

#5

I'm back; Accepted into College! - by @YendorTOO

Yendor is back! "Hopefully..."

I wish Yendor the best either way!

#4

Team Montrose: The Saga Continues: Protests, Contests, Pro-Text, and Context! - by @CrimsonKero

I am under the impression that the average person on NG, be they artist or regular user, have very little clue as to how the site "works". Even less pay attention to the day-to day-dealings that take place on NG.

Personally, I noticed that the number of complaints about the Art Forum were increasing in the previous month or two. The difficulty comes from determining how much any kind of complaint is really justified. Most of users who speak up essentially complain about "having been caught" - because some people are just entitled shits! So we would rely on confirmation of what really went down, presented by a trusted third party, that is usually not available.

And that is what @CrimsonKero's post is: The voice of a trusted third party.

On a personal note: I began drafting up this Top 13 on the 14th last month. It started out so innocent: Some light activism, some funny News Posts, a fair bit of praise, some callback, some "actual news", a bit of dystopia... But if this year goes on like that, the next of these posts of mine will be me announcing my departure from NG because I don't feel safe in "my" community anymore... (After long consideration, I decided to refrain from commenting on the matter here further.)

#3

Internet Archive is in danger, and needs your help! - by @TangoStar

TangoStar's post triggered an (admittedly short) chain of posts from users trying to raise awareness. If they had not talked about it when they did, it might have taken weeks for anyone on NG to notice (and talk) about this.

Spreading awareness is much more important than collecting signatures. People can only think and talk about events that they knew are taking place.

(That is also how the "AAA games industry" gets away with so many horrible things: Not enough people care to inform themselves about how the people who make the games their community loves are treated like dirt by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick who protects rapists and seeks to exploit games, employees, and players alike.

And that is just one of those repulsive people...)

#2

Help Newgrounds Fight AI on the Audio Portal - by @Quest

Read all about the hell in NG's very own backyard...

You know... When I see "I am User of the Day!"-posts, I usually cheekily point out that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to capitalize on the extra attention they are getting. That they could do something more meaningful than just step up to the microphone and announce "I am User of the Day! Thank you everyone! That is all."

But Quest was actually doing exactly that: She seized the opportunity and used it for doing her part in saving the world!

And I am very proud to share a community with her! :)

#1

I left Russia 3 years ago. - by @Irisia

Irisia is a trans woman who is fighting for her life! She escaped one land that declared her and thousands of other queer and trans people "outlawed" (legislation which in itself is already utterly insane), just to have the same thing happen to her in her new "home".

I have no money to speak of... no political power... no clue how political asylum applies to these cases... and despite being one who hands out tons of advice in these Artist News, everything I "could" say in her situation always feels so... inadequate. At the end of the day, like presumably many others, I feel paralyzed by the situation. I do not expect my "next to no reach" will amount to much, but at the same time, I think if I'm doing this post already, her situation deserves the brightest spotlight.

She also asked me to add the following:

"Moving from a land where I saw no perspective on my life and where it was a matter of time before I could lose an opportunity for it forever already was a real miracle because I wasn't on the level when I could afford something that could change my life and make me value it. It hasn't changed much since then, and planning a move due to safety reasons for the second time that I started almost a year ago, when I became illegal in a new country as a trans girl (and soon it will become easier for the local security to deport me), was a thing that I considered impossible. Since then, I have sacrificed everything in my personal life to make it happen because my identity is what helped me to start loving myself. And I will fight for it and my own future, whatever it takes."

Would you rather not be here?

Please note that I talked to the authors of posts where money was involved. Because (even one-sided) association with me could potentially have consequences. I'm doing my fair share of helping others and I'm as diplomatic as the people I talk to - but I say what's on my mind. I'm not here to make friends; I'm here to help others (mostly artists). And if that involves brutal honesty I will tell even people I like if I do not think highly of their artistic output.

If your name is included in this list and you do not want your posts to be listed, just drop me a PM. I will remove the mention of your post as quickly as I am able and will not ask any questions. (Just be mindful that I am not on NG 24/7 before you start complaining.)

Addendum 2025-06-13: All the weak wordings and typos I did not notice at first should be corrected by now. (I do all of my own proofreading - and it probably shows.) I also added some simple links, for your convenience.

Also: I'm proud that I finally managed to publish a timely Top 13 list on a Friday the 13th since it was my only chance to do it in 2025. If you are bothered by that number, I have just the animation for you made by @FrankHardon, who covers occult and "supernatural" topics.

Addendum 2025-06-14: I managed to misgender @Quest, who I've been acquainted with for quite a long time. I... I did not feel so profusely useless in many months.

"You didn't know?

Let me explain.

It's exactly what you're thinking."

 – Hirotaka Nifuji, Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku (2018), (E02: Are We Now Dating?)

I thought it might be interesting for people who are still undecided on what anime series to follow this season and already had an early glimpse some insight into how well those first episodes hold up as the are nearing the halfway-point. I also made an effort to give some of the candidates I skipped a chance. (Which did not always amount to a mention.)

Worth noting: At the time of writing, there are 4 "slight spoilers" in this. As always, all of them are telegraphed as such. None of them gives information about the story development away, even if you read them.

And as is standard with these articles, entries are sorted worst to best.

As usual, you can write PMs, but I will not (and cannot in good conscience) promote anyone's anime-opinions other than my own. These posts are not titled Yatsufusa's [SuchAndSuch] for nothing...

No Ecchi-Appendix this Time

Due to reasons discussed in the previous Ecchi-Appendix there will not be another Ecchi-Appendix for this particular season. I'm sure the readers who were interested in the listed series for this season were already able to make their decision.

(In the voice of Tiny Tina: "Why do you have to do this to me, Japan? Why do bad things happen to good people?!")

Stuff I dropped from my List

Rock is a Lady's Modesty

[Rokku wa Redi no Tashinami deshite]

While there are unexpected dynamics to the story, the 3D still throws me off. The most obvious grievance would be the stiff hair of the blonde protagonist, but what irks me even more is that they used motion capturing to move the characters during their musical performances (which looks like ass - because it's the kind of early generation MoCap of yesteryear) but then neglected to move the individual fingers as well. They are already having the animation in those scenes done by a computer, but then cheaped out on the focus point of the action. How can anybody expected to get exited over that?

I am not even a music-nerd, but even I notice that the fingers do not correlate to the music played. What a colossal waste! They were already at the doorstep to adding something impressive to their show and then decided "You know what? Ringing the doorbell is just too much effort for us. Let's just 'do whatever'..." And so they did. I hope their hard drives corrupt halfway through the series... ;p

Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray

[Uma Musume Shinderera Gurei]

This was not on the original list. I looked into this just for purposes of this article.

So...

I didn't--... I couldn't watch more than 3 minutes of this. "It's horse racing - but with 'girls' instead of 'horses'." Also: It's based on a mobile game ("Uma Musume Pretty Derby") - so you know what "quality" to expect...

If you know nothing about horse racing, and you like Sports-Anime, and you like to see women run, then you can have a look at this yourself to see if it is for you.

I'm sure this would be perfectly serviceable for viewers who do not know about the million different things that are wrong with horse racing and competitive running. So I will spare you the nasty details. You go and enjoy your anime - if you're so inclined.

If you do like it: As it turns out, there's 39 episodes of a previous series for you to enjoy. That I had never heard about before...

So let's move on to the next madness, shall we...?

mono

[mono]

Slight spoiler: Episode 2 foreshadowed regular "motorbiku"-parts, so I stuck around for episode 3 (*Vromm!!*). Slight spoiler: No bike action in episode 3 (ó.ò). The third episode was about as "worth watching" as the previous two episodes. :/

Like Food for the Soul (which I'll talk about in a bit) the writing and direction the story takes are nothing to write home about. On top of that the character development doesn't really seem to exists and the characters who are getting introduced or fleshed out at this point are like walking tropes.

I also suspect that this series received wheelbarrows full of sponsorship money from at least one source per episode in order to get made. You'll immediately notice what I am talking about. They where not subtile... At all! This makes the entire series feel like one whole "particularly nice advert". And who wants to see an advert - even if it's nice?

This show lacks an "identity". If "funny bits" can salvage a series for you, this may be for you, but if you require at least "token substance" you can safely skip this one.

Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō

[Kijin Gentōshō]

Having seen the first two episodes, I'd say: "It is "serviceable". 'But...'"

I would like to take a moment to point out that the voice acting is spot on! You don't need to speak Japanese to tell that the voice actors put their all into this and their efforts make this series stand out. The animation is good and the studio invested extra budget to make the first episode, which lasts roughly 54(!) minutes more impressive. A lot of effort came together in all the technical and artistic aspects of this and it must be one hell of a joyride for people who like Sword animes. However...

While the scene-to-scene storytelling tells a compelling story and the characters have motivations, arcs and all that good stuff, the meta-plot leaves a sour "Let's just make it up as we go along"-taste. And I can tell you about it without spoiling anything: You remember how this show has "Demon Hunter" in the title? So it would be fair to assume that there would be demons to hunt, correct? And of course the viewer would then be taught what "demons" are in the context of this particular fantasy universe and what their basic rules are, because no two kinds of "demons" are the same, both in folklore and in modern entertainment media. ...Right? I mean, you would expect some basic information, to avoid that every single "demon-scenario" remains a total enigma for the audience, while the characters think and act based on information that the audience has no chance to intuit. Right...? Otherwise this would look like the work of some skillless hack, who tried to make a boring piece of plot more interesting by withholding a key-piece of "obvious information" - which would become blatantly obvious. Right?!

Yeah, you saw where this was going two sentences ago. What "could" have been a 2 minute dialogue during a montage or a single training session, as some non-forced dialogue between a teacher and a student, ends up being the writer's idea of "look how interesting this is..."

I would set the age rating for the visual storytelling of this to 14+ to 16+. There's some brutal and psychologically jarring stuff in this. But in order for an audience to enjoy "that style of storytelling" to the fullest, the audience would have to be 8 to 10. No "plus".

And that is a disconnect I cannot ignore. So I dropped this almost as soon as I picked it up. However: If you miss the "Swords and Splatter"-anime of the late 90's to noughties and were always fond of a smidgen of body horror: Eat your heart out! This was pretty much made for you. And if this applies to you, then I am so happy that I could bring this to your attention.

Princession Orchestra

(AKA Princess-Session Orchestra)

[Purinsesshon Ōkesutora]

"In principle" I actually want to watch this. And I'm "probably" still going to. But right now, I am just too stressed for it. So I cannot tell you in good conscience whether it would be worth watching or not - even if you are into the Magical Girls-genre.

I "expect" it's better than mono and that Princession Orchestra would have ended up in the Middle of the Road Anime section - but no guarantees can be made by me in regards to the actual quality. And I didn't want to hold the release of this article any longer in the vain hope that I'd "some day wake up in a good mood and full of energy".

Witch Watch

[Witchi Wotchi]

I just cannot motivate myself to see if this gets better. The crux here lies in how I value my time and what I enjoy personally: I like arcs that see some kind of closure. Predictably, by the end of this series one or two "hostile" characters will have been turned "amicable" or "friendly", but nobody will be dating anyone and nobody will be graduating. Everyone is stuck in a time loop where they never "grow up" - for all eternity. Episode 1 signaled in bright colors that this will be "11 to 12 more episodes of "exactly this"." If you are okay with that and you liked the first episode, then this is for you.

Still not out yet?

Survive! Inside the Human Body

[Kagaku x Bouken Survival!]

I have found "hard, irrefutable evidence" online that the 21 episodes of this series exist, but somehow it still does seem to be available at my place. Let's not be coy about this... My question is: "How does a Japanese piracy site have this ready to stream but "we" haven't? Why do bad things happen to good people?! Why do people have to die at the hands of others? Why can somebody decide that it's not a problem for them to not to get vaccinated if there is a deadly pandemic going on, but when a woman wants to have an abortion or is trapped in the body of a man, politics get to dictate what she cannot do with her own body?! How can you know me 'this long' and not foresee that I would pull this 'light-hearted sketch' to a dark place kicking and screaming, dear reader?"

*Cough!*

So yeah... "Survive! Inside the Human Body"... Somehow, mind numbingly boring stuff such as The Great Cleric [Seija Musō] gets a timely translation. But of course not something halfway educational that I was looking forward to. Real bizarre...

...Do you need a minute? How about a little break after this reflection on the fresh hell that we all live in before we continue...? I certainly took one.

Late Newcomers/Additions

Reincarnated as a Neglected Noble: Raising My Baby Brother With Memories From My Past Life

(AKA Shirohiyo)

[Shiro Buta Kizoku desu ga Zense no Kioku ga Haeta node Hiyoko na Otōto Sodatemasu]

This one came out a bit late, so I did not include it in the Early Anime Overview because it didn't exist at the time.

According to Wikipedia, the Japanese title translates to "I'm a White Pig Aristocrat, But I Regained My Memories from My Previous Life, So I'm Raising a Younger Brother". :3

...I think "White Pig Aristocrat" should be the name of a band! Whoever thought of that owns one of those Conrad Zimmerman-pins (PinfulTruth on Etsy, btw) that reads "The Rich Taste Like Pork".

Anti-Capitalist propaganda aside, the series itself is... "not your typical Isekai."

It is "original" in the sense that it features a lot of things you would not see otherwise, but at the same time, there's plenty of "you have all the skills now" that's featured in your typical Isekai. While it is not combat-oriented, the protagonist starts out with his skills and does not have to "earn them" based on what he happens to know - unlike in Ascendance of a Bookworm [Honzuki no Gekokujō ~Shisho ni Naru Tame niwa Shudan o Erandeiraremasen~], which you should probably just watch instead, if the description above even halfway appealed to you and you haven't watched it already.

"Neglected Noble" is novel, but after having seen 2 episodes, the story and the characters are not interesting enough to intrigue me to a point that I would watch the third episode. And I continued watching The Unaware Atelier Meister, so you know how low my bar can sink... -.-

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom (2024)

[Gekijō-ban Ōbārōdo Sei Ōkoku-hen] (2024)

"Raise your head." ;)

This originally came out in select theaters, but not anywhere near my place. Even if I would have wanted to watch it in a cinema I cannot afford to visit a cinema for just any movie - let alone travel the country for it.

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom looks as if it had an above-average budget. The writing is... It's more Overlord. :) If you like Overlord - I am around 97% certain that you will enjoy this. If you don't, then... why would you even read about it? ;)

As for myself: I "can watch" Overlord without too much issues and at times even enjoy it, but it's hardly a favorite of mine. There are some aspects and characters that keep the show "interesting enough" for me, but I'm not a fan. That being said, the series is a good "palate cleanser" between very different types of creative work and there are bits of comedy that resonate with me. However, others don't. Overall, the series offers a rich cast and world, that I can appreciate as being somebody else's hard work - without being too interested in most of it. I did look up where scrolls come from, though. Don't look up where scrolls come from! It's smart, logical world-building, but there's a good reason they did not include that bit of lore in the animated series.

The story of this (quite long) arc is concluded in a satisfying way. And along the way there's plenty of the usual shenanigans. While you see a few familiar faces, these are mostly cameos. But aside from the titular Overlord ("Ainz Ooal Gown"), there is only one other member of the regular main cast who gets a spotlight. 2 hours of Ainz Ooal Gown next to people dying is pretty unusual for this series. And seeing this movie in one go is quite a trip if you are used to watching the episodes about 7 days apart when they come out. It's not overbearing and there are no massive information dumps. Even if you had forgotten all the different names of places and people, it would not impact your enjoyment in the slightest. There are no "history tests" here. As long as yo have seen the 4 seasons of Overlord at some point in your life, all of this will make sense to you without having to refresh on anything first.

That being said, while this movie offers more of "the usual Overlord fare" of "these are the stories of people who will die, while the Overlord lives on to remember their story", a lot of people survive - and the Overlord is very present in this story - a blend between Season 1 where he explored the lands more freely and Season 4, where he goes exploring with a mission - but already in his role as... (very slight, carefully worded spoiler) "an important representative".

If a hypothetical fan of Overlord told me that they do not care for Lord Ainz and just like the rest of the cast, I would still recommend this movie to them, because there's plenty of other human story bits. But it will be unusual to see him that present and all on his own for so long.

Since I was curious before, I had a peek at the summaries of professional reviewers that had been collected in Wikipedia. They didn't like it, but I am not exactly convinced that they liked Overlord in the first place, so there's that... :)

TL;DR:

If you like Overlord you will watch this either way, but it may relax you to hear that you will almost certainly have a good time. If you don't like Overlord, then you would not even think about watching this in the first place.

...What do you mean "But why did 'you' watch it then, Yatsufusa? 'You' don't like 'Overlord' either..." - "For science!", of course. ;)

Middle of the Road Anime

These are "okay", but you might as well watch anything else - or dig through the treasure trove that is the past. (I still haven't watched Patlabor. What am I doing with my life...?)

The Beginning After the End

[Saikyō no Ōsama, Futatabime no Jinsei wa Nani o Suru?]

Episode 3 is copying an important element from yet another popular Isekai-series.

It is "watchable", but it barely made the cut for "Middle of the Road Anime" for me this time... "Stuff just happens." The story is moved along, but even "important" characters are not really established or grown. The actions on screen are moving along a meaningless story without any stakes, because the audience is not motivated to care about anyone. Token sentences of inner reflection that mime understanding rudimentary human behavior do not amount to any meaningful change in the protagonist either.

Plus: At this point there also have been multiple accounts of straight-up plagiarism! I do not mean this as a joke! This is not "a nod" or "an homage" - they play these with a straight face. At this rate, I foresee several lawsuits/backroom settlements.

I thought She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man and The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord's Army Was a Human were "Meh, but serviceable." But the way things play out might mean that Studio A-Cat will never get the chance to animate Hero Without a Class: Who Even Needs Skills?! [Mushoku no Eiyū: Betsu ni Sukiru Nanka Iranakattan da ga] because they have to close down permanently. Which is a shame. I thought that one had about a 50:50 chance of turning out well and from an animation standpoint I genuinely liked what Studio A-Cat was putting out...

Let's hope for the best and brace for the worst.

The Unaware Atelier Master

[Kanchigai no Atorie Maisutā: Eiyū Pāti no Moto Zatsuyōgakari ga, Jitsu wa Sentō Igai ga SSS Ranku Datta to Iu Yoku Aru Hanashi]

Although it got a few chuckles (as well as groans) out of me, I'd describe the series as "serviceable, but utterly unimpressive". Yet, the way this season's bearers of hope are turning out, you might give this one another consideration if you are looking for light entertainment without much substance. Or if you just can't stand another show that's either Isekai or focused on Japanese school girls. ;)

"Speaking of which..."

Food for the Soul

[Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi]

The character development is "okay" so far. I wish it had more cooking and "fun little adventures in modern Japan". So far it has been "a bit pedestrian", if I'm perfectly honest.

Or to make the subtext text: If the writer turned out to be around the same age as the (teenage) protagonists, I would not be surprised for even a moment... This is comparable to real-world diary-entries. Not really something that one would consider turning into an animation. If this was a live-action series, it would have been canceled after the pilot.

The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl

[Gorira no Kami Kara Kago Sareta Reijō wa Ōritsu Kishidan de Kawaiigareru]

While I am still angsty about the very real possibility that the studio is pushing her into the role of "woman defined by her relationship to male characters" there is some hope that she will find female friends. I just hope that it does not take her until episode 11 until that happens.

It's still an okay watch, but I would like it to have more depths. And... Well...~ :)

Ideally I would like her to find a girlfriend and marry her - to wide approval of all of her male friends and the head of the academy. But I'll settle to her getting a strong foothold on a place in life where she decides on the direction it will take. She's effectively "the fucking chosen one" - so let her choose!

The story is more intriguing than that of Food for the Soul, but... Unlike me, you do not have to be bound by the unrealistic hope that this gets better, so you should probably just ditch this.

I foresee two outcomes for the story:

A) She will experience personal growth, gain confidence and change her demeanor to the point that you could rightfully claim that the series has meaningful character growth. And then Yatsufusa will sing it praises in the adorable, clumsy way that dogs tend to sing in.

B) She will keep the (slight spoiler) friends she made early on and gets put in a place in life that "the powers that be" determine for her "like a well-behaved female" - despite having the power to break a person like they were a matchstick! And then Yatsufusa will be cross with studio Kachigarasu to the point that their stuff will get skipped by default.

(Not just because of this... Up until 2025 Kachigarasu were known as "Encourage Films", which produced one horrible series after another! The only reason I watched "The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl" unbiased was because of the name change that I just learned about at the time of writing. Cheeky buggers... If you want to see something that will qualify for your personal "worst anime of all time", give "Isekai Cheat Magician" a go. Utter trash! ...Made by Encourage Films.)

The Mononoke Lecture Logs of Chuzenji-sensei

(AKA The Mononoke Lecture Logs of Chuzenji-sensei: He Just Solves All the Mysteries)

[Chūzenji-sensei Mononoke Kōgiroku: Sensei ga Nazo o Toite Shimaukara]

"Way less bad than the title and synopsis lead me to expect." ;)

It's... "fine": It's a bit different. The formula hasn't been done too often and the mysteries aren't totally overblown (so far). The stories are good, but they are also what carries this. The characters are decoration at best: Barely any background, next to no motivation/ambition... Paper-thin.

And yet... Looking up the list, unlike Food for the Soul, this is something I might actually watch until the end. Just for the little mysteries.

(To make the subtext text: This is where the really watchable part of the Middle of the Road Animes starts.)

I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level

[Suraimu Taoshite Sanbyaku-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Reberu Makkusu ni Nattemashita]

Something got lost along the way from 2021 to today. Normally I would blame the change in studio, but Revoroot's other work wasn't exactly stellar... Given the chance, they might have messed this up as well.

Season 2 is "okay", but does not really hold a candle to season 1. It's "somewhat nice" to see "the same characters", but... It's not really "the same characters" - is it...?

A pity...

I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!

[Ore wa Seikan Kokka no Akutoku Ryōshu!]

This one is still more of the same, which is to say: Episode 4 is kinda different from the previous episodes. Several things that viewers did not quite expect...

A common element I noticed was appreciation for big boobies, though. While I can appreciate a well-cushioned chest, I'd wish they had gone with more variety on that front. Even more so if you consider the average cup size of Asian women. (Please consider what unrealistic expectations you're pushing...)

There is one thing I can predict about the show, though: By the time their story is concluded, their TV Tropes article will be long enough to block out the sun if printed out - even when folded.

(Don't print out internet sites! Think of the trees...)

Don't get me wrong: I will most likely watch this until the end, but "the end" will also be the time I will know if it's any good or not. Finally!

The Best

Some of these are second season, though. They might get included in the Q2 seasonal recap. But unless they not turn out to be "mind shatteringly amazing" and have never been in one of my previous yearly 13, they won't be listed in the Top 13 for 2025 at the end of the year. (Sorry, The Apothecary Diaries. You know I would smuggle you in there if I could... ;) )

Oh, by the way: Given the current offering, I am considering a Top 6 rather than a Top 13. That's part of the reason I looked into stuff I didn't check out before.

Aharen-san wa Hakarenai

[Literal Translation: Aharen Is Indecipherable]

I did not retain the strongest memory from the first season, and due to time-constraints (Read: "Newgrounds"), I did not have the opportunity to rewatch the first season, but "this is good". So far, I like what I see and it ticks a whole lot of emotional boxes for me.

The humor might be awkward at times, but this is one of those series you can watch and will (in all likelihood) feel better afterwards. Please give it consideration as part of your mental healthcare. Raptor-Jesus knows, we all need more of that in our lives...

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now and They Won't Leave Me Alone

[Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru: Tada no Inaka no Kenjutsu Shihan Datta noni, Taisei Shita Deshitachi ga Ore o Hōttekurenai Ken]

Slight spoiler: Magic exists in this world. I hate if they don't tell the viewers in episode 1, because the audience is surprised or confused while the characters act as if nothing happened. It's a disconnect that pulls the viewer out of the story - and it's an especially bad idea in animation, where the story can move on without the audience following it. Rooky mistake! I hope I haven't been unreasonably optimistic with this one. If this is Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion all over again there will be blood... Or at least a bad review. ;p

The rest is good, though. A bit too focused on the titular Country Bumpkin (who already was the titular Master Swordsman at the start of the series, if you ask me), but this could easily shift, as the number of main cast characters to be introduced through the lens of this character slowly eases down.

The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom

[Kanpeki Sugite Kawaige ga Nai to Konyaku Haki Sareta Seijo wa Ringoku ni Urareru]

While still a bit shaky on its legs, both the current arc and overall story of this series are stabilizing nicely and are moving at a good pace - without leaving the character development at the roadside.

Teogonia

[Teogonia]

This is hard to talk about without spoiling anything.

I still like it for the qualities I liked the first episode for. Story progression and character depiction are good. As is the pace of the story.

Unlike with The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl I am not worried about Teogonia going south in the slightest.

To avoid misunderstandings: What may sound like rather unexcited feedback translates to "There is nothing wrong with this. I am beside myself with joy and the room is spinning!"

Catch Me at the Ballpark!

[Bōrupāku de Tsukamaete!]

While the individual episodes still aren't "breathtaking", the wholesomeness is still exactly what the doctor ordered in these dark times. (If you are from the future: Early 2025 left no doubt about this being the darkest timeline - or who the culprits were...)

I foresee Catch Me at the Ballpark! taking a similar spot to 'Tis Time for "Torture", Princess in my Top 13 of 2024 for very similar reasons, but there are still 2 more seasons to go. A lot can happen in 2 seasons...

The Apothecary Diaries

[Kusuriya no Hitorigoto]

The 24 episode-long second season is still going on which I "kind of" did not mention last time because viewers wouldn't enter the series at that point. They'd start with season one. I was already running close to the characters limit on NG as it was... And I already "just mentioned" that season 2 was going on...

But in this format I can "catch up". So I will bring you the shocking news right now:

"It's still good. What a surprise..." ;)

The second-cour series seems to be getting stronger at this point and shows signs that it will go into the kind of direction the audience is tuning in for. Also: Some more "girls sticking together and having fun" - which is something they should do more often.

Unwatched

At this point I'm just complaining about stuff that annoys me...

A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof

[Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi]

A Ninja is an Assassin, you dilettants. They are both Assassins. This is "2 Assassins under one roof" - or "2 Assassins one roof". "Get those girls a cup and it will go viral..." ;p

I'm sorry. If somebody thinks this is a title, I dread what kind of content they would fill their project with. "Next...!"

Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX

[Kidō Senshi Gandamu Jīkuakusu]

(If this spot remains empty it means I had the good sense to not watch more of something that will only make me angry...)

Overal Conclusion:

It's not easy to find good anime in Q2 of 2025, but you won't "starve".

Western Animation?

I have typed out a lot in the pre-write but at the same time, I have next to no space remaining. So I'm making two posts back-to-back:

Yatsufusa's Western Animation Overview Catch-Up (Q2 2025) (Spoiler Free!)

(I would usually be more hesitant about this, but we have users who casually create 3 News Post on some days.)

The Future

"You have no chance to survive make your time."

 – CATS, Zero Wing

Recent talks of the endangerment of a machine that lets you travel into the past have made me hungry for the future. So I had a bit of a look if any great anime series had additional seasons announced. I only went through some personal highlights. If you are the kind of deviant who liked Yu-Gi-Oh! you'll need to do your own research.

In order of predicted appearance, these are:

Dandadan

[Dan Da Dan]

July 2025.

There you go.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

[Sōsō no Furīren]

January 2026!

Mark the exact date when it gets announced. This will be worth cleaning out your social calendar that day. There is no way I would watch that episode just once...

By the Grace of the Gods

[Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko]

The fans speculate 2026, but there is still no official confirmation.

I was underwhelmed by the second season, but I have not given up hope, yet. And in the words of one of my favorite cynic:

"Everybody is always afraid of 'dark' forces, but you know:

It's hope that kills you every fucking time."

 – Conrad Zimmerman, Mercenary Creative, The Spin-off Doctors: Silent Hill

'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess

[Hime-sama "Gōmon" no Jikan desu]

Announced for "2026".

I am at the edge of my seat for this one! I just hope we all get to live that long... 2026? I just don't feel that optimistic for humanity.

Delicious in Dungeon

[Danjon Meshi]

As I had already mentioned here:

"While the production of a second season has been announced I'll be content with the early episodes (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and call it a day. It was the fun kind of "weird" until they changed the formula halfway though the series and I really cannot stand this kind of behavior."

"I hope the fans will like it."

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy

[Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Dōchū]

A third season "has been announced".

The first two seasons were not "good as such", but they both were "a worthwhile watch" and rounded off by a respective finale anyway. If you "happen to have" unvented frustrations, I highly recommend this series.

As for me: I write.

Sasaki and Peeps

[Sasaki to Pii-chan]

A second season "has been announced".

Foreseeable, but still nice to hear confirmed...

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

[Nozomanu Fushi no Bōkensha]

"A second season has been announced."

 – Wikipedia

"...? Wait, "for real"?"

– the author

I am stoked, but I am also in utter disbelief! When I listed this show in my Top 13 for 2024 last year, I did not expect to see any more of this. The review community that year did not seem to have much love for it either...

I am sorry that I cannot sound as enthusiastic as I should right now, but I always expect everything to go the worst way it can. Frankly: I'm even used to it by now. So having something unexpectedly good happen for once "confuses" me. It feels weird and unfamiliar... :p

Gushing over Magical Girls

[Mahō Shōjo ni Akogarete]

"A second season has been announced."

 – Wikipedia

"Yes!"

 – the author, almost in tears

And that was it. Don't feel bad if you didn't read everything. Nobody is interested in every series in existence. Thank you for your attention and "Good night out there. Whatever you are..."

This article has been quite a ride for me, so I'm taking the rest of the day off. (Typos will be looked into "tomorrow"...)

Addendum 2025-05-26: I've watched Koupen-chan. It was very underwhelming.

"How peculiar. Oh my, yes!"

(If you know who I just mimicked, color me impressed - and the voice actor satisfied that he left that much of an impression with you. ;) )

Western Animation

I have typed out a lot in the pre-write for Yatsufusa's Anime Overview Catch-Up (Q2 2025) (Spoiler Free!) but at the same time, I have next to no space remaining in said article. So I'm making two posts back-to-back.

(I would usually be more hesitant about this, but we have users who casually create 3 News Post on some days.)

Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld

『(そんなに気にしない)』

Words can not express how little I care about the Star Wars franchise these days. So I would not watch this, even if I had access.

It's Star Wars. It has a high budget. They went out of their way to make the animation look "state of the art", adding a million micro-movements to every single character, to ensure all of it looks "realistic"... And in a few short years from now it will look like absolute dog shit, because they chose 3D animation over actual animation.

Such is life...

"Next...!"

Blood of Zeus

『ゼウスの血』

The internet says Season 3 just came out (on Netflix).

Season 1 was Meh.

Season 2 was Meh.

I do not need the help of 3 sisters to predict the quality the 3rd season will have...

If asked for a more elaborate, spoiler free review, I'd say: "The nice animation and competent voice acting lifted the pedestrian story up to the ranks of "something watchable if you're tired". ...for the first season. The second season was "one or two episodes of wholesome story", followed by "regret"."

The biggest players in this often make arguments like children would make them: "There are only two ways to do this." and such... This is a show written for an audience with the intellect of children - but featuring lots of bloody violence. ...Like Madness! You heard it here first: "'Blood of Zeus' is 'Madness' with a budget." ;3

Given the most recent US presidential elections, maybe that is what the target audience expects from the beings in the highest available places of power: People who could lose an argument to a tree.

You can tell that I'm angry when I'm dragging politics into this. I feel genuinely upset on behalf of everyone who had to work on this project, having been given "that script" to turn into a professional animation. And I feel even more sorry for everyone who had to give "confident" interviews, because jobs are on the line and they cannot say how they truly feel about this project.

Bullshit like this is what holds the western animation industry back - and I don't like that. We, the audience/consumers, always get the best result if there is as much competition as possible.

(Maybe take a sip of water before you read the next paragraph, because I'm not nearly as angry about the net entry, but with only three entries, I have no gradual "bad-to-good-curve" to work with...)

Iyanu

『(不明)』

I hear "it exists". My spare time scheduling (Read: "Newgrounds") did not leave enough time to look into reviews in earnest. Having watched a few available snippets, they have "good but not perfect" English lip-sync, which I very well appreciate, decent animation, "okay" effects, and pleasant, non-standard voice acting.

The story seems to be aimed at young teens, but from what I could gather, it's probably an "enjoyable-to-okay" watch for people from age 8 to 18. Or "any age", if you are into animation. Which... I mean... You are on Newgrounds and you are reading this. Are you seriously going to tell me that you are "too much of a grown-up" to enjoy animation...? ;3

Batman: Caped Crusader

『バットマン:マントの戦士』

"The second season has been confirmed and will be released in 2025."

– Wikipedia

"Nani?!"

– the author

Apparently, this released in August 2024. I had no idea at the time because nobody I pay attention to talked about it. But I thought "I have some space left, this seems worth my time, my audience speaks English..." So here we are. ;)

While I am not a Batman-fan, I watched my fair share of animated Batman series.* Enough to know that even well-meaning adaptations can overpromise and underdeliver.

I'm sure animation and voice acting are "serviceable to stellar", but looking up "Batman" online is bound to get you a million hits for the wrong series and I was in no mood to watch cherry picked trailer material to extrapolate from. I'd say the core audience for Batman watches it for the story. With all due respect: The studio could have used cardboard cutouts, but as long as script and voice acting are good the series still would have been well-received by the actual fans. ;)

I glanced at some reviews and spoke with a few witnesses. Apparently, Batman: Caped Crusader is quite good, actually - but suffers from "not being 'Batman: The Animated Series'" - which it is trying to emulate "but darker and grittier, because it's 'Batman'". Yeah... The same Batman who still refuses to carry a bloody gun or a feasible taser... -.-

To be fair, the focus is (reportedly) almost entirely on the 'detective work' this time and there is not much fighting. So it gets a thumbs up for that move from me!

Personal grievances aside, what I get from professional reviewers (after having read ten thousands[?] of professional reviews in my life) is that they greatly appreciate a "well-made" Batman-series for a change. And that the want to write reviews that criticize less than they should - simply because they would hate for some special needs CEO over at Amazon Prime Video to read their review and interpret a seven-point-something as "Oh it's shit, then? Well, let's can it and animate something with more butts and boobs for our teenage demographic..." in the kind of unreflected knee-jerk reaction that gets you hired/voted into positions of leadership these days.

Sick Sad World...

·

* If you are craving some animated Batman now but have no access to Batman: Caped Crusader and have already watched all of Batman: The Animated Series, check out The New Batman Adventures which was effectively the continuation of Batman: The Animated Series but was neither particularly well marketed or "successful". It's "not as good" and uses a simplified animation style, but will likely leave you "somewhat satisfied". The main issue, as it presents itself to me, is this: Episodes most often felt as if the writer had a solid idea for the beginning and ending - but then left the middle bit to somebody else, who did mostly filler. That the art style was dumbed down severely did not help the series either.

It had it's highlights though.

(The rest of this paragraph contains a mild spoiler. Look forward to episode 9, if you want the identity of the "villain" to be a surprise.)

A personal favorite of mine was episode 9 (Love Is a Croc), featuring a return of one of the particularly tragic Batman-"villains", Mary Louise Dahl (AKA "Baby-Doll"). Whatever I may think about the "filler" for these episodes, the endings are almost always effective - and the episode with Mary Louise Dahl hits especially hard if you know anything about how society treats people with dwarfism.

Addendum 2025-05-15: I watched The Amazing Digital Circus episode 4, to give the series another chance. End of Sentence.

Addendum 2025-05-21: Love, Death & Robots got a forth season. Good for them... I am certain it will be just as much of a mixed bag as the 3 previous season have been: Some good, some bad, some in-between. And there is no doubt in my mind that several of their 3D generated episodes will be a stutter-y mess that looks as if somebody installed malware-infested Chinese rendering software on a Russian smartphone...

If you are interested in that series and have Netflix-access, I'm sure you'll be able to find someone who reviewed or rated individual episodes of that show for you.

Addendum 2025-05-24-A: Big Mouth Season 8 is out - on Netflix. To be honest, I think it's a "show for adults" that was made for teenagers and I remember the humor as being "too wild - even for me".

When they lost me at the first episode, I had this to say: While daring, I thought it was needlessly over the top and the teenagers were just behaving too erratic to create much of a coherent plot. It's a lot of skits, daisy-chained together, with the same set of faces.

The animation is decent, though.

The spin-off series Human Resources was pretty good, though. Like a "show for teenagers" that was made for adults. ;)

If you could not define what a "switch" is in under a minute, neither show would be fun for you. ("Switch" In terms of sexual preference; not the electrical component.)

Addendum 2025-05-24-B: Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight [Astérix et Obélix : Le Combat des chefs] apparently came out - also on Netflix.

I've seen a lot of Asterix and Obelix animations and everything after (incidentally) Asterix and the Big Fight (1989) [Astérix et le coup du menhir] was... "Not worth watching - even with a friend".

@Triple-G seemingly liked Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight (2025), so maybe this one is good for a change.

Speaking of Asterix and Obelix... I started reading Asterix and the White Iris last year and was utterly disappointed! The first Asterix and Obelix-comic I did not finish.

Addendum 2025-06-01: It seems that @DrSaturn2 also quite enjoyed Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight [Astérix et Obélix : Le Combat des chefs] (the one on Netflix). I didn't hear anything negative about it either, so I guess it's safe to say: "It's probably good. Go watch it if you have access." ;)

Addendum 2025-06-02: Lemme read you a synopsis: "Lulu Is a Rhinoceros is an animated musical special on Apple TV+ that follows a character named Lulu, who sees herself as a rhinoceros. The story emphasizes themes of kindness, acceptance, and embracing one's true self and featuring original songs."

I am not getting friendly with a shitshow like Apple for just one "double-length" animated special, but that description reads like an LGBTQIA+-friendly show for a younger audience if I've ever heard one. If you have access, your kids will probably enjoy it.

And if it turns out to be not that good, you can show your offspring Wandering Son [Hōrō Musuko] from 2011 instead.

Happy Pride Month!

Ladies, gentlemen, and others,

We interrupt our usual program of Newgrounds-related self-publishing advice and anime-opinions to bring you another special bulletin:

Archive.org, which many of you will know as the "Wayback Machine" or the "Internet Archive", is facing an existential threat: A $700 million lawsuit, filed by major record labels.

Some of the people reading this News Post will already have received a PM from me about it the day before yesterday - because frankly, I did not want to write this article. I was already utterly drained by the weekend and I am even more drained today. I hope that it shows you how important this is to me (and you!) that I still set my mind in motion regardless.

Here is the actual article I'll be referring to:

Take Action: Defend the Internet Archive

If you haven't already signed the petition and you do not have a lot of time on your hands, I would prefer you to primarily invest your time there and (hopefully) sign their petition for the record labels to drop their lawsuit. But at this stage of events, the most important thing you can do and that will make a difference is to inform others. Raising awareness right now will help with the impact of any further steps archive.org will take from here on out.

I am totally fine if you set a bookmark to this article (the Newgrounds News Post you are reading at this moment) and return when you have the headspace.

If you need some convincing and don't just want to take my word for it being important, I'd like a shot at convincing you.

@TangoStar already wrote a post about this from a very personal, nostalgia-related perspective:

Internet Archive is in danger, and needs your help!

@ADR3-N wrote a post from the perspective of a freelance music producer and archivist:

Record Labels are once again trying to burn the Library of Alexandria

@ShangXian has also written a piece that would not look out of place on a website that publishes news articles and will show you yet a different perspective:

The Internet Archive

Other users, like @Zordoo99, have made a more... "URL forwarding"-style News Post, which I also think is completely valid for raising/spreading awareness. (It's just not my personal style.):

Petition Worth Signing

At the time of you reading this, other articles might be available as well:

(Most likely tagged with #internet-archive)

What I want to offer will be more of a "bigger perspective piece" with some explanations and future outlook.

Let me quickly set the scene...

Who are the Companies Responsible for this?

They organize under the name of "Recording Industry Association of America" (RIAA) and their leading members are:

Sony Music Entertainment (SME) [AKA: Sony Entertainment/"Sony" - the company that builds the PlayStation if they do not run out of microchips.]

Universal Music (UMG) [You know... "Universal". The people who make money from movies.]

Warner Music Group (WMG) [Actually not owned by Time Warner/"Warner Bros." but rather by a group of private investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr.]

There are others and it gets more complicated, but these are the "Big Three". These are the companies we can boycott (if we like) and "get the most angry at" for this.

Why is this important? What are the "Wayback Machine" and the "Internet Archive" for?

Now this is a question I heard from some of you yesterday and it honestly hit me with surprise. While I do not use the site more than once a month myself, at the times when I use it, there is literally no alternative. Anywhere.

You know Wikipedia and whatever tragedy you use for online searches (DuckDuckGo, Startpage, or even Google)?

When one of those were to "go away", you'd still have alternatives. Large parts of Wikipedia get mirrored by some chancers ("opportunists") and people who want to sell you something (or just want to fill your head with propaganda at opportune intersections). Losing Wikipedia would severely diminish the quality of information available to you.

Search engines are a mixed bag, and many are... "improvable..." but you actually have quite a range to choose from.

If archive.org "goes away" that will have been it. That is why this threat is so dramatic.

@ADR3-N likened the Internet Archive to the Great Library of Alexandria. And that is not just hyperbole, it's a pretty apt comparison: The Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most significant libraries of its time.

And you know artists? The people that give the site you are currently browsing the reason to exist. As an artist, you do not just sit in an empty room and "get ideas". There is a quote that summarizes the foundation of creative work quite nicely:

"The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write:

A man will turn over half a library to make one book."

 – Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), a British author, linguist and lexicographer,

Life of Samuel Johnson (Vol II) (by James Boswell)

Now... What libraries or museums would you recon resourceful artists visit when they need to look up all kinds of art in various media for educational purposes or the purpose of creating art? Will they spend the larger part of a decade to travel half the world and explore the great libraries, museums, and cultures of our time...?

No, of course not! The term "starving artist" wasn't coined from nothing. Almost every artist you will meet on any website that host art of any kind works a regular day job for a living, barely gets by (just like the rest of us), has crazy expenses and time investment for their art and operates at a loss - for doing what they are passionate about. 'Cause none of us have any money. So the place they go to is, often enough, archive.org.

Archive.org in a Nutshell

The Internet Archive

On the "Internet Archive", you are able to find countless resources creating fundamentals for artists of pretty much all sorts of media, stylistic directions, and walks of life.

You find installers and manuals for "old" and "ancient" games that you would often not be able to recover otherwise. (If you say "GOG" I will scream! The number of games that never got there or simply vanished from that site over licensing and royalty disputes... Or forcefully replaced by the new rights holder with a "remade" version that nobody wanted...)

You can find videos that are no longer (or were never) protected by copyright, or are no longer available through the hosters they were originally available through. (Most of the time YouTube.) Seriously: Their library on these things are huge. And unlike the former hosters, archive.org has a lot of search options, so you can narrow down search parameters until you get a manageable number of results.

"Music and "Audio stuff" freelance music producers would use. As well as "Art stuff"..." (I got to stay honest here: I am just not somebody who looks those up, as I am more interested in other forms of art.)

The Wayback Machine

The "Wayback Machine" lets visitors see archived internet sites. Sometimes including massive files that were part of that website (like videos and music). And if the same site (or part of a site) was archived at different dates, you can find parts of a site's history what were lost. Or in other words:

"It's a Time Machine...!"

This is the closest you or me will ever get to traveling back in time to witness events from the past "for the first time" and at our own pace and discretion without having to experience it through the lens and filters of somebody else.

I'm not suggesting you shouldn't cherish the present, but if this does not excite you, I can only assume you are suffering from a severe lack of imagination.

This is why preservation matters. This is why archive.org matters!

...And this is why I'd like your help spreading the word. Maybe write PMs and emails to friends who are interested in these sorts of things.

If you are thinking about writing an article, you'll reach more people if you don't write your articles at the same day you've already seen two others. Spread them out a little.

Addendum 2025-04-25: I had the opportunity to ask resident artist and variety blogger @jthrash about his views on the matter. Even though he didn't write an entire article about it, his views on the importance and responsibility of preservation are well thought out and reminded me of what the late, great game critic John Peter Bain ("TotalBiscuit") would often express when discussing the issues with the preservation of video games. While his remarks end on a bit of a sad note, I would still describe them as the views of a community member who has in-depth thoughts on the matter without necessarily speaking up on it in their own, dedicated News Post.

You will have to scroll a little. But the rest of his AMA is also a good read if you are tired from me constantly sending you to places where people talk about something that is 'actually quite horrifying':

Ask Me Things! Uncomfortable Things!

(If you merely want to know what his thoughts were on this, you can scroll down to the reply to yours truly in the comments.)

(Sorry that I added this "a day late". It was 100% intentional for a change. I was worried that a long tangent would distract from the topic at hand. And the awkward navigation [no possibility to link directly] would have made for an awkward inclusion on "day one".)

Addendum 2025-04-26: Thanks to [an anonymous benefactor], a broken link (that everyone else either missed or was too polite to tell me about) is no longer broken. Thank you for your help, kind stranger!

Addendum 2025-05-25: The petition is at 88,000 signatures now. ADR3-N wrote an update worth reading that explores the question "Why is this even happening in the first place?" and discusses what people are using the Internet Archive for.

"I love criticism as long as it is unqualified praise."

 – Noël Peirce Coward (1899-1973), English playwright, composer of popular music, and actor

Welcome once again.

This is a ranked, spoiler-free list of which anime series seem appealing to me this season (Q2 2025). The season has just begun, so what I essentially offer is the estimate of what lies ahead, based on the preview on offer. Or in English: "I watched a lot of first episodes and here's what I think."

I won't go as in-depth as I did for my 2024 overview. Spoilers will be indicated in advance - although I think I managed to avoid those entirely this time...

Overall, this anime season's offering so far seems to be "about as appealing" as the last season. If you have a lot of unwatched backlog and still did not manage to get through it in 2024, 2025 seems to shape itself to become another 2024. ...With the difference that US Americans will "have to" pirate their shows now, because they are being bled dry by their elected government. What can I say? They did it to themselves...

One thing I noticed was that "almost nothing" came out in the first week of the quarter. With so many series coming out "last minute", I predict that professional reviewers will be rather cranky when they do similar projects as this one. (I think I had 3 new shows on this Saturday evening - it's all a blur!)

While this article is more of a preview, I might update it in time. If you are from the future, you can also check if there are any updates or additions at the end of this post.

And as is standard with these articles, entries are sorted worst to best.

New (Separate) Segment: The Ecchi-Appendix

(This will be its own, separate, Adults Only News Post - which will also be linked here. But I did not want to spam, so you will have to wait 3 days or so.)

Due to the resulting "A" age rating, the inclusion of "Ecchi" in the last article, excluded a not insignificant part of my readers. Since I had more underage readers than I thought, I branched "Ecchi" off and it got its own sextion - I mean "section".

Just to explain what "Ecchi" actually is: It's cheesecake. Definition done. ;)

...Okay, imagine this: You want to tell a story that features nipples and talk about sex, but you do not want to show the characters having sex or how they look like beyond their belly-button. In "Ecchi", characters behave playfully sexual, "naughty", or lascivious without it having to be played off as a joke.

It is different from "Hentai", where characters have genitalia and are having sexual intercourse in front of the "camera".

If you are a horny adult, you'll likely want to watch "Hentai" instead.

"Ecchi" on the other hand exists for the (apparently) rather niche audience that appreciates partial nudity turning into nudity (with obscured crotch regions). In a nutshell, it is a world closer to the real world, where sex in relationships exists and is discussed, rather than treated as a taboo. It is a medium for a mature audience that likes "naughty" scenes and immature panty-based humor that one would not depict in a show aimed at children under the age of 12. But since Japanese culture is incredibly prude, despite having a culture of public bathhouses, that "12" is turned into a "16".

Unless, of course, you're drawing or animating Ranma ½ - then you get away with panties and nipples without anybody questioning you. "Rules for thee but not for me.", I guess...

And I think that, by now, you have a pretty clear picture why I kept that category in an extension, rather than just dropping it altogether. Maybe one day we'll be able to treat the human body as something natural, rather than "Thou shalt be ashamed of thy natural anatomy!", you know...?

If you can hardly wait to read the current Ecchi-Appendix I'll go ahead and already tell you this: Just because I can appreciate "Ecchi" as a genre doesn't necessarily mean that all "Ecchi" is good - just like with all the other series I cover here... I'll make an effort to look into it, but there are no guarantees that that niche will get any quality writing in any given season.

I've kept you long enough. Here you go.

Anime Series

Unwatched

Let's start with some series I did not make the time for - often due to disinterest on my part.

There's no real "Stuff I'll skip"-category. If I did not list something you were interested in it is either not available to me or I had no interest in it to begin with. I'll list a few cases that I genuinely think might be interesting to people who aren't me, but the rest is "I have no intention of badmouthing this for no reason other than not being interested, personally"-stuff.

I am aware of the following series, but the chances of me finding time for them seem rather low:

The Shiunji Family Children

[Shiunji-ke no Kodomo-tachi]

The synopsis sounds extremely foreboding... I'm skipping that one!

Apocalypse Hotel

[Apokaripusu Hoteru]

I am picky about how robots are depicted.

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?

[Danjo no Yūjō wa Seiritsu Suru? (Iya, Shinai!!)]

This is its own category. Like Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? I call this "Stupid Question anime".

If you're asking a question in the title, the conclusion an article or show is going to arrive at will always be "No."

Next!

Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō

[Kijin Gentōshō]

"Sword anime" tend not to be for me, but it does not look bad.

The Dinner Table Detective

[Nazotoki wa Dinā no Ato de]

Last season's Tasokare Hotel has set the bar very high - and I was already eating Kyokou Suiri - In/Spectre for breakfast before that. I might check it out, but not in a timely fashion. This post is already late as it is...

Rock is a Lady's Modesty

[Rokku wa Redi no Tashinami deshite]

I'm sure it's great - if you like "Music anime".

I would like to look at some elegantly dressed ladies rocking out, but what I've seen so far has not filled me with hope. When it comes to depictions of an "academy for the sons and daughters of nobles", I have seen far better depictions.

Koupen-chan

[???]

Will this be the next Little Shark's Outings? I have moderate hopes for this but I am terrified that they'll mess it up, so I'll make an update about that in a month or so. Just check it out yourself, if you're interested in "a softer world-stuff".

Anne Shirley

[An Shārī]

"Can you improve "flawed perfection"?"

In short: My nostalgia for the original series is just way too strong to give this anything even resembling a fair shot. If/when I'll watch this, I'll probably keep my biased opinion to myself.

If you have no prior experiences with that story, this might be very much for you, though...

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

[Kidō Senshi Gandamu Jīkuakusu]

"I'm sure it will be great." (...they said sarcastically...)

Thus far, the Gundam franchise always knew to impress me with their Mecha-designs and to utterly ruin my opinion of it's author's writing skills at the same time. It beats "submarine battles in space" - which is what certain space battles of yesteryear boiled down to, but I'm not watching animes for fight sequences to begin with.

Plus: "GQuuuuuuX". The jokes about that title write themselves, I don't even need to do anything... ;p By the time you finished reading that sentence, you probably had made up a joke of your very own.

So I'll be skipping this one. But if 'you' like Gundam, you already made your decision and do not need my help to arrive at a conclusion.

Princession Orchestra

(AKA Princess-Session Orchestra)

[Purinsesshon Ōkesutora]

(I only had a glance so far, so I'll list it here.)

Generally speaking, I despise "Music anime" (only notable exception: Bocchi the Rock!), but I love Magical Girl stories.

While I haven't seen every Magical Girl show out there, I have looked into almost all of them - for serious research purposes. While there appears to be a lot of entries to the Magical Girl genre, it is not as overpopulated a it appears at first glance. Many shows are continuations in the same universe with a "new spin" - akin to Digimon.

I cannot tell if I will give up by episode 2, but right now Princession Orchestra looks good enough to stick with. If you're not into the Magical Girl genre and aren't looking for something to watch with a family member under the age of "12 to 14", then this is most likely not for you. On the other hand: If you like to see girls protecting the world, this might be an enjoyable watch for you, that brings back memories of yesteryear. It's visually reminiscent to DoReMi, but production quality and writing hold themselves to a higher standard.

Summer Pockets

[Summer Pockets]

Looking forward to watching this. At the same time I'm terrified they'll mess it up.

What will most likely happen is that I'll binge-watch it once they release the last episode. It worked for Island. ;)

Claims that I have signed a deal with the devil to skip certain series are entirely untrue. We are old pals - Lucifer could just ask me. I'd listen... ;3

Bad

Again: This is sorted from worst to... "less bad".

Kowloon Generic Romance

[Kūron Jenerikku Romansu]

Within 2 minutes, it will become clear that this is not what the typical viewer would expect when reading the title Kowloon Generic Romance. Also: The protagonist starts their day with a bite to eat and a cigarette right afterwards. Disgusting and revolting! (Do not watch this right after Food for the Soul.) Generally, there's a lot of "casual smoking" in this (feels like 30% of the screen time). Between this and the art style, my guess would be that they were aiming for a "90s look", but if you have seen a lot of anime from the 90s, it doesn't work out. It's "reminiscent" but it's not "nostalgic" and "that classic feel" is missing.

If you just noticed you are craving for something like that, and you are and adult, I'd recommend RIN: Daughters of Mnemosyne - or just something that's actually from around that era - like Bubblegum Crisis (1987-1991).

My guess would be that their aim was "nostalgia", but there were a lot of effed up things in the past and a lot of them are coming back to me when I watch this, such as:

"A female character being defined through her interactions with male characters..."

"A male character effectively belittling a female love interest and then acting as if they were generous to spend time with her..."

It might not qualify as "sexism" for some, but this has a strong "chauvinism"-vibe to it.

Episode 1 became increasingly hard to watch until the end and if I wasn't writing this article, I would have quit right in the middle of that very episode. I'm not even curious how the story will continue after, who would have think it: A "dramatic" cliffhanger. I was so displeased with this that I was briefly considering adding "X out of 10"-ratings to my review, just so I could express that displeasure even more. But I think people who can write are better off without numbers in that regard.

My verdict is: "Well-animated, but please f*ck off! This is a culmination of everything I don't miss about that time."

Me and the Alien MuMu

[Uchūjin Mūmū]

I had more than enough than my fill from overbearing, selfish, demanding characters who bully those who are trying to help them - be they present in anime or online.

Hard pass!

#Compass 2.0: Combat Providence Analysis System

(AKA Compass2.0 - Animation Project)

[#Konpasu Sentō Setsuri Kaiseki Shisutemu]

I hope the "attackers" win. Them managed to despise the "protagonists'" side before episode 1 was over.

I call them "attackers" because they have not even been established as being on the wrong side in terms of morals. The "defenders" on the other hand... Well, that would be a spoiler.

/me looks at a reference-screenshot... "Dude, this even 'looks' cheaply made. What a train wreck..."

The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows

[Isshun de Chiryou shiteita no ni Yakudatazu to Tsuihousareta Tensai Chiyushi, Yami Healer to shite Tanoshiku Ikiru]

Despite the studio trying to speedrun E01, almost nothing happened. Felt like 8 minute stretched out endlessly... What poor time-management.

Shockingly boring.

Once Upon a Witch's Death

[Aru Majo ga Shinu Made]

Bleh!

I love Witches! (Spoilers for "one day": If any of you ever find out what it is that I do in terms of creative output, you will find out how true that statement really is...)

But despite that love, this series is predictable, boring, and starts out with a premise that users who can operate a calculator will immediately notice to be flawed.

I can already predict the ending. And even if this series got a second season, the sloppy writing makes me suspect they would fish for a third.

I understand what they were going for, but it makes up at most a minute of screen time per episode. Story and protagonist personality utterly ruin it.

The carbuncle is cute, though.

Maebashi Witches

[Maebashi Uitchīzu]

Again with the witches? You folks are shooting yourselves in the foot by all doing the same stuff. 3x Ecchi, 3x Music... I guess there will be a third series featuring witches as well.

So yeah: This one is apparently featuring what boils down to a thinly veiled analogy for capitalism, paired with "Idunnu. Just add some "quirky" stuff that girls would find motivational". The result is so easy to shoot down that one of the main characters frequently does just that. Even though I watched the full episode for diligence, they lost me as a viewer at the 7-minute mark.

Sad. The Japanese school system already tries to groom students into becoming office drones and now anime tries to turn them into obedient retail workers.

Lazarus

[Lazarus]

The plot isn't "bad" as a plot, but... My inner edgelord isn't nearly strong enough to make me like this. ;p

This strikes me as "somebody who likes to direct action sequences had 'one' idea for a plot and somehow got a room full of people with money to not worry about the giant plot-holes that become apparent within 5 seconds".

I think the story as told is shit and every character in this is stupid, but the choreography for the action scenes is good and must have taken them ages - just for episode one alone.

If you like action and do not care that the series was animated by MAPPA, which makes this the moral equivalent of slave labor (getting paid 1/4th of the going rates while not getting proper training and being overworked by "perfectionists" who clock out on time)... ...then this series might be for you. I'm out!

Your Forma

[Yua Foruma]

I could feel the PLUTO-vibes before the first episode was even halfway over.

"Thanks, but "no thanks"."

If you liked PLUTO and do not mind a world that looks like they "borrowed" half of it from Ghost in the Shell, this might be for you, though.

Zatsu Tabi: That's Journey

[-That's Journey-]

The animation is put together well enough, but it's more of a skeleton of something serviceable - rather than the actual thing.

I like slow life as well as exploration series. Laid-Back Camp [Yuru Camp△] was great.

This is not.

In terms of story, this is somebody telling you what they had for dinner because they couldn't think of anything else, and their solution to make the upcoming conversation more interesting is to eat their next dinner at a place you couldn't afford.

Maitre d': "A wise choice, monsieur. And now, how would you like it served? All mixed up together in a bucket?"

Mr. Creosote: "Yeah. With the eggs on top."

 – Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)

It's a "Culture anime" without the actual culture. It's just knee-jerk tourism.

The Unaware Atelier Master

(AKA The Unaware Atelier Meister)

[Kanchigai no Atorie Maisutā: Eiyū Pāti no Moto Zatsuyōgakari ga, Jitsu wa Sentō Igai ga SSS Ranku Datta to Iu Yoku Aru Hanashi]

It is hard to talk about this without spoiling anything. If you were one of the 5 people worldwide who where hoping Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town [Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shounen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari] got a second season then congratulations are in order! This is the closest thing you'll get to that.

But if there is any target audience for this series, it certainly doesn't include me.

On the other hand: If you are already scraping the bottom of the anime-barrel, you might as well start here. This is "friendly" and I expect the finale to feel exactly the same as every other episode.

Sequels & Spin-offs

You don't really need advice from me here, but in some cases, you might not have seen the first season.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

[Vijirante: Boku no Hīrō Akademia Irīgarusu]

A My Hero Academia spin-off.

Since all of my complaints against My Hero Academia were very fundamental, rather than a thousand little things that added up, I'll be happily skipping this one.

Wind Breaker

[WIND BREAKER]

Season 2 is coming out.

Season 1 looked fun and promising. I can appreciate a story told through the medium of (non-lethal) violence. But large stretches of this story were too boring for me, so I dropped it.

Fire Force

[En'en no Shōbōtai]

Season 3 is coming out.

Fire Force started out brilliantly and I was very much into it but they lost me halfway through the second season. Too much crap I cannot find myself to care about...

I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!

[Ore wa Seikan Kokka no Akutoku Ryōshu!]

I'm inadvertently proving a point I made about this earlier, by redirecting you to something I wrote earlier if you want to hear what I think about it.

Shōshimin Series

[(Shōshimin) Shirīzu]

Season 1 is on my list of things to watch, now Season 2 is out.

I doubt I'll get around to having a look.

For me it's "Schrödinger's anime" right now: It "could be" awesome and horrible at the same time. Until I open the box, both can be true... ;p

Aharen-san wa Hakarenai

[literal translation: Aharen Is Indecipherable]

Season 2 is coming out. ...Wait, what?! O_O

To say that I was surprised would be a ****ing understatement! I loved season 1 and as with so many other good series, I did not expect it to see a sequel after close to 3 years.

Season 1 is... Hm. From memory, I'd say: "There's nothing like it." and "It's rather calm." apply most of the time. If this ever turns into a genre, we're going to see less heart attacks in Japan. :)

Heads-up: Some LGBTQIA+-baiting takes place in season 1. I felt the need to point that out because it was the only real criticism I had for that season.

I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level

[Suraimu Taoshite Sanbyaku-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Reberu Makkusu ni Nattemashita]

Season 2 is coming out.

Season 1 was brilliant and I re-watched it... "more than 5" times.

I'm kind of scared that they might mess season 2 up and haven't watched more than the first episode at the time of writing. It's... "okay". The energy I'm used to from the series isn't quite there. "A..." Hm... How not to spoil this...?:

"A main-cast character is portrayed too much over the top - which seem to be her only characteristics so far this season."

Middle of the Road Anime

Series that are "okay enough to watch" but might not become your favorite.

mono

[mono]

Interesting start into the story. More than once I though: "Is this how it feel to be lesbian for a straight woman...?"

The characters in some series are just "insane". This is one of them. They are fun to look at, but since they have such a wide range of actions that seem acceptable to them, you have to expect rather wide swings of what the story will be about next. If you are okay with that, this might be for you. If you are not, then this might be "fun - for a while..."

If you are interested in watching a photography anime that is more serious about photography and offers a deeper story, I recommend Insomniacs After School.

I am very undecided right now, but I'm pretty sure I'll watch episode 2.

Witch Watch

[Witchi Wotchi]

Bingo! A third series featuring witches. What the eff is wrong with the Japanese animation industry this season?

Not exactly brilliant, but it has a rather unconventional style of storytelling.

Similarly to last season's Zenshuu. I might like it enough to like it, but not enough to watch it all the way through. Time will tell.

The Beginning After the End

[Saikyō no Ōsama, Futatabime no Jinsei wa Nani o Suru?]

So far this seems to be very "standard Isekai"-fare, with a slow-paced(?) story about personal growth embedded into a more prominent sequence of gaining more power. The most original element so far might be that the emperor wears a piece of chin-armor - which makes no sense to me: The lower jaw is the bone in the human body that is the hardest to break. (Go protect your brain instead, man...)

If you liked Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (mentioning that one for no particular reason...), or As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World..., or any other Isekai series, really... You should just re-watch those instead. And if you do not like fighting, check out Ascendance of a Bookworm. It is inevitable that, the more Isekai stories there are, the harder it will become to innovate, but judging from the first episode, the author didn't try very hard in that regard. Given that most viewers drop off after episode 1, holding back your best material until episode 3 would seem rather balls-y, so this is where I drop out.

Sorry for being so snarky. I do not want to imply that the author just plagiarized popular shows and did nothing himself, but the elements that he did copy are very recognizable/blatant. I'm sure it might 'still' play out as entertaining, but in the first episode I was not presented with anything I had never seen before.

Shout-out to Daisuke Aizawa's The Eminence in Shadow, which basically only showed me stuff I had never seen before - or showed them to me in a new light. Brilliant work, Mr. Aizawa! (Please stay healthy!)

Food for the Soul

[Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi]

The animation quality stands out and you can see the high budget/effort from a mile away. The story is told in a rather calm, and, at times, slow fashion. So far, the character introductions have been focused on the one character who kicks the story off. Whether or not she will remain in a "protagonist role" or whether the cast will be introduced one by one is not yet clear.

This series being a about Japanese food, it is foreseeable that it will have a heavy focus on meat- and fish-centric dishes - which means it will always be a mixed bag for vegetarians, such as myself.

The food-aspect is comparable to Isekai Izakaya "Nobu". It's less flashy than Isekai Shokudou. And it seems less character-focused than Flying Witch. By my estimation, we will not know that much more about the individual characters but will learn more about the group-dynamic, as it develops. "'Bocchi the Rock!' this is not."

While I'd love to say stuff like "The food-appreciation is 'real'.", it's just too early right now. E01 feels like the tutorial in a video game. the audience has been set up, but the meat of the story has yet to happen: We got our Japanese pre-meal tea and had a cheeky look into the kitchen, but we are still awaiting what our order will end up looking like.

This looks as if it would be a nice watch for a calm evening when you are about to go to bed but don't want to doze off because it was too calming. ;)

The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl

[Gorira no Kami Kara Kago Sareta Reijō wa Ōritsu Kishidan de Kawaiigareru]

A fantasy world with sexism comparable to our own in the 80s - or the present, depending on which shitty backwards-country you happen to live in...

The main protagonist is a kindhearted but meek woman and the kind of growth I'm expecting to see here is exactly the kind of story that usually gets glossed over with the kind of "but now she can marry and be a good housewife" in some other stories. My hope is that it will turn out more like The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent - Season 1 than The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent - Season 2.

I'm being cautiously optimistic and I'm certain I'll enjoy experiencing the protagonists "fun adventures", but... "But while having a partner is great, you do not "need" a man in your lives to achieve success or happiness." - and I severely hope they point that out at some point and this will turn out to be good...

The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom

[Kanpeki Sugite Kawaige ga Nai to Konyaku Haki Sareta Seijo wa Ringoku ni Urareru]

"I wonder what 'this story' could be about...? I'm not spoiling 'anything' for the reader. I hope you appreciate that..."

This could go either way. I'm not too invested in the titular Saint, but they did a pretty good job explaining how it could come to this situation and that "Yes, 'even in this fantasy world', many people are petty, selfish, greedy idiots!"

However the story will play out, it is blatantly obvious that the antagonists will get their karmic retribution delivered to them - not by the bucket-load, but rather they'll need an entire convoy of trucks for that. If you are a person who works hard and diligently and is underappreciated, but cannot quit their job, this series might be exactly what the doctor prescribed.

Very Good

"Good" to "sufficiently enjoyable to hook you for this entire season from episode 1".

The stuff that appeals to me so strongly that I will most likely go out of my way to watch it, even when I do not have the time.

"Oh look... It’s 3 again." Honestly: I did not plan for this. If it were up to me, I’d have one great series for every day of the week...

Catch Me at the Ballpark!

[Bōrupāku de Tsukamaete!]

Like so many other genres I don't like "Sports anime" either, but I can tolerate them if the writing is good.

Luckily for me, Catch Me at the Ballpark! is not a "Sports anime"; it's a workplace anime. The series is centered around the staff at a very wholesome, Japanese baseball stadium with a focus on the newest member of staff. And... Everyone is delightful!

My only complaint it the amount of alcohol depicted and that it's portrayed so nonchalantly.

I can already predict that this series will rank rather high when/if I do a ranking at the end of the quarter. If you watch anime to relax and do not want to remember character names or plot points, give this one a go.

You know how I go on about "this might be good", "this might turn out to be good", "I hope they don't mess it up" further up in this article...?

"This is good. Period."

Teogonia

[Teogonia]

One of several "last minute" entries before I put this list into shape...

I felt intrigued by the story before it even really started. While the animation budget seems "normal", the storytelling (and the intro) pulled me in immediately. I wanted to know more about this new world and what kind of struggles the characters living in it had to go through.

If you read manga, my bet would be that the manga this animation is based on would be superbly written and well worth your time.

If you are familiar with some of the ideas found in spirituality or if you're a spiritual person yourself, the ideas presented will be "less impressive" to you, but it is still a well-written story regardless.

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now and They Won't Leave Me Alone

[Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru: Tada no Inaka no Kenjutsu Shihan Datta noni, Taisei Shita Deshitachi ga Ore o Hōttekurenai Ken]

This is a down-to-earth story about a character who has honed his skills through hard work; rather than having been given awesome video game-stats. And what he does with this skill is: Teach it to others.

If you like Isekai but you are at the same time tired of the typical Isekai-formula, this might be your speed.

If you liked My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, this might be for you as well.

For reasons I cannot quite put my finger on, the topic of helping others by guiding them seems to appeal to me... No idea why... ;3

There’s a good chance that this series will appeal less to you, depending on your outlook on life. I'm clearly biased here. I'm aware of my bias, but at the same time I cannot ignore it.

And this was is for the best Anime I have watched so far this season.

As overwhelming the offering turned out to be in quantity, as underwhelming it was in quality. But it certainly had its highlights and who knows: At the end of the season this might all look very different. There was a lot of stuff that I did not have the time for that might get a deeper look once the dust settles.

Western Animation

"Them American animés!" ;)

Devil May Cry (2025)

An old series existed, but this is a new one. I so don't care about Devil May Cry, but I wanted to share this information who do care and who were under the impression that they had already seen this years ago.

Unicorn Academy

Apparently, Season 3 is coming out.

I have actually completely missed out on this series during my Netflix days. What a blunder! I feel like I ended turn one and forgot to put a land card down... ;)

Have you watched it? Are you interested in sharing your impression in a (mostly) spoiler free fashion? If you can convince me that you watched it, write your own article about it to be linked here, send me a PM, and I'll put in a spot a spot for a guest-speaker. ;) (I would suggest spell-checking, though.)

Isadora Moon

Cute vampire girl. :3

I am not a vampire but I will probably look into this at some point.

At first glance, it does not exactly appear to have the highest production quality ("NG with more frames"), so don't hold your breath - but this may become a good "comfort series" for someone.

Jeez Louise! That took absolute ages this time...

"I never want to write anything ever again... Or at least I'll give stuff I 'didn't' like less spotlight ;) "

Addendum 2025-04-23: More thoughts before I run out o--

Summer Pockets

The cast is so stupid it is disillusioning.

Episode 1 will have been all I'll be watching of this.

Yaiba: Samurai Legend

I fear this style of "comedy" might not be for me.

Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX

Truth be told, I watched this out of a feeling of obligation. Because they might have learned from their past mistakes and then I would have felt guilty for judging them for things they might actually have improved upon this time. Sooo...

My first thought: "There's a lot of 'noise' in space..." I can accept that vibrations will travel between mechs and that the honking could have been a transmitted signal but if it was a signal, they would have actually transmitted a voice, complaining about the issue at hand. And there really is a lot of noise in space scenes. To much just to be "for ambience".

They have gone for a quirky style, with little to non character introduction or motivation or world-building. "Stuff just happens."

It's a bit better than expected, but they almost immediately go for the same old mistakes they made in previous iterations: They presume every viewer has watched 250 to 600 episodes Gundam and knows the rich lore and history.

Just for reference: I have watched somewhere between 50 and 100 episodes of Gundam series and have watched a video that explains some history for another series. Among what I have watched was The Witch from Mercury - both the pilot episode and the complete series. I have a basic understanding of less than 20% of what was referred to in episode 1 of GQuuuuuuX.

Unless you have watched all the Gundam series and movies that came out since 1979, you will likely not get the full experience.

I. Like. Mechs! But if Sunrise cannot be bothered to either explain that shit or write a stand-alone series for once, I cannot be bothered to care about the stupid bullshit they dare to call "lore". It's like a history test, but the subject matter is not from what you learned this semester - it's from 3 to 8 years ago.

I can only guess that everybody who watches this either loves reading wikis, has actually seen the over 50 TV series, films, and OVAs, or just want to see explosions, and teenagers piloting giant robots. If either of those things applies to you, I am happy for you that you can enjoy this. But I want a story that can be enjoyed as is without having to refer to lots of lore that is not included either as the start of the series or as the story takes place. "You're a refugee...? Okay... So there was a 'war'...? ...You're not going to get into that, are you...? Just "I'm a refugee". 'Fan-tastic'... Next!"

Given a significant difference in feedback concerning two more or less recent, anime-related "News" Posts I made, I started pondering if I'm misjudging the age of my current audience.

Yet, I do not want to go around asking past readers "Hey, are you a minor or an adult?" (It is beyond my understanding why somebody would keep that information a secret on a community like NG, but I also want to respect your privacy.) So I have chosen the most accessible AND most unreliable method of creating user statistics I could think of:

I made a StrawPoll.

(VPNs are enabled. If multiple answers apply, pick the topmost positive hit.)

If you are somebody who cannot stand me and wants to mess with the numbers, please be aware that I would also write for an audience of one - which I am basically already doing by commenting in the Artist News on all sorts of topics.

"I don't think this will be a horrible mistake at all." (...they spoke, testing if the cement for their enormous flag pole had settled yet...)

For related reasons, replies given until the evening between Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th will be relevant to the post I'm about to write for this weekend, but the poll will remain open until 2025-04-20 - that is by whatever timezone StrawPoll.com resides in.

Thank you for your time.

Addendum 2025-04-10: I did not think that needed mentioning, but if you want to keep your age private, it's probably a good idea to not emote to this News Post - or to do so at a later time. Technically another user could hammer F5 on both pages and determine which user just voted. I don't exactly attract a huge audience... ;)

Addendum 2025-04-11-A: After 18+ hours, the spread was actually surprisingly even and close to what I was expecting when I drew this posts (and the StrawPoll) up. The only thing that really surprised me was that 2 users did not trust StrawPoll. Good on you for being careful, but in that case, you might want to look into the Tor Browser*, which is (in a nutshell) a modified version of the Mozilla Firefox browser, combined with a free VPN client.

Whoever admitted that they do not actually read the posts: Thank you for your honesty - I do not mind it. I'm not trying to impress anybody and it's not a competition, so don't feel forced/obliged to react to my stuff. Though I do wonder if it's only long posts, since you clearly read this one. :3 (I left the age intentionally undecided on that option, in case anybody wants to elaborate via PM.)

Oh, and of course I'll share the results here, when I determine how the post for this weekend will look like and once on the 20th.

* Just to explain Tor for a bit: You can use it with the kind of VPN service you pay for, for some extra security (which many people actually do). It will be a slower connection, though. There are ins and outs to getting the Tor Browser to run smoother (like excluding US, GB, RU, & others in the torrc-file), but you can expects at least 1.x Mbit per second, unless you're already getting less from the servers you frequent or your regular connection. (Note that cloudflare.com explicitly hates Tor users. Every two years or so, they will "accidentally break" something that makes it impossible for Tor users to get a connection to sites they "protect" - and said companies will then wonder why their user base dropped by 20% - not suspecting interference from their "partners". The only solution is to write well-worded emails to those companies and to wait.)

Addendum 2025-04-11-B: After about a day, the direction this is going has become pretty clear. Inside me there are two wolves. One is bi and-- I mean: There are now two News Posts:

Yatsufusa's Anime Ramble (Q1 2025) (Mostly Spoiler-Free) [Now slightly edited and rated "T" to be accessible to more people]

Yatsufusa's Anime Ramble (Q1 2025) (Spoiler-Free) (Ecchi-Appendix) [Rated "A", which contains the now removed segment from the previous post]

Enjoy. Or don't. ;)

Addendum 2025-04-13: Finally got an anime post out on a 13th: Yatsufusa's Early Anime Overview (Q2 2025) (Spoiler Free!)

As promised, here are the current results:

I'm an adult who cares for anime and reads "A"-rated posts.

4 votes (Technically 5 votes, but one of them is myself. I had to test if everything was really working correctly.)

I'm a minor who cares for anime.

3 votes

I'm a minor, but do not care for anime.

2 votes

I'm an adult and care for anime, but never read "A"-rated posts.

2 votes

I do not trust StrawPoll with that information.

2 votes

I just 'react' to your posts instinctively, but do not actually 'read' them.

1 votes

I'm an adult, but do not care for anime.

0 votes

I'm an adult who cares for anime, but never 'react'.

0 votes

Since the numbers did not move since yesterday, I'm expecting that 24 hours is the most visibility I'm going to get with a post, or that not more than 14 people in my audience are willing to click on a post titled "Do you like Anime?" ;)

Addendum 2025-04-19: It seems no further changes were made. Thank you to all the users who participated! I learned a lot about my audience and their (surprisingly fast) reaction time.

Now all we need is a season with more that 3 "good" and 6 "middle of the road" series. The next poll will probably be "Should I just drop the stuff that isn't particularly gripping or do you appreciate the warnings about which series are 'not that great' as well?"

I'm considering making the Q2 summary a Top 13. The only problem with that is, that I will likely not stick with 13 series. But a Top 10 or Top 5 is so "disgustingly normal"... ;)

I'd Like to Publicly Acknowledge some Users

Preamble

(This is one of those boring circlejerk-posts. You do not have to care for it. People being cool without you knowing about it happens all of the time.)

"Hi. I'm Yatsu-whatstheirface and I complain a lot. One of my favorite quotes is "Hell is other people." But I'd like to share this post to remind all of us, that 'not everyone' is shit all of the time, even if we we happen to run into assholes and idiots at times."

People who are a blight on humanity are really obvious and they tend to "stick" in our memory. But those who are good and kind and work really hard seem to be easily forgotten. Or you forget their name because they chose "qwerty741" as their username and you lost them in the crowd again.

Please do keep in mind that, no matter how cool you might actually be, I might just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and did not notice you being cool.

Since I do not want to rank people as if one person was "more" than another, I'll go by alphabetical order. I will try to keep it short, and some users get acknowledged for quite similar things, so I'll group them together rather than writing almost the same text twice. It also avoids situations where "Person A has the same text as Person B, but slightly better..."

So, let's see... Alphabetical order... Starting with... Huh... Man, you absolutely did that on purpose, didn't you... ;3

"You are doing good":

@Aalasteir AKA @SteveMaddenFootball (who changes his user name way too often)

Some of our regular users put so much work into Newgrounds, as if it was their job. He puts in so much work that it's enough for two jobs. If you know a lot about certain users on Newgrounds, you might know all that stuff from one of Aalasteir's various interviews.

(QA Interviews [written], A100 Interviews & A200 Interviews [podcast style])

@blambi

Best mysterious deer with a blaster 2024 - and probably also 2025.

"If you know what they do, you'll understand..."

@CrimsonKero (formerly known as Anonymous-Frog) & @Platzsoldier (formerly known as Poligeektoons)

For encouraging people to have higher standards. ...Hm... That doesn't sound quite right...

"For encouraging people to have standards."

@Czyszy & @MetalSlayer69

For acknowledging the kind of art that other users in the limelight lack the proverbial balls to praise (or criticize) publicly.

@G2961 & @Quest

For keeping the Audio Portal free of stolen songs and AI generated crap.

They are not the only users doing it, but when they make their posts, I need to scroll multiple times in order to read them in full.

If you want to do what they do: Newgrounds Wiki: How to Detect AI Audio. (Also helps with getting to Deity Whistle Status, if you happen to care for that.)

@Gekkotsuki (formerly known as AutisticMan1), @ShangXian, & @TinFoi

For being there for others in the Artist News.

@Osaka

For making people speculate about them so much: Sometimes even questioning if they are secretly an android - or dead. Some even say they are a teacher now. Whatever the case, I'd like to believe that they are doing well while continuing their work from the shadows, like they always have. ;)

@TaintedLogic

He deserves a medal for being able to verbalize what he thinks about Audio Portal-submissions using "music words" and also making constructive suggestions what to improve upon.

Who thinks that this is not impressive clearly has never read "reviews" in the Audio Portal...

@qwerty741

Another one of our unsung heroes. He tirelessly writes helpful game reviews.

@[Those who I befriended on NG - against all odds]

You know who you are.

@[All of the Moderators and former Moderators]

Thank you for all your hard work! ...And for not strangling me when my reporting sessions run longer than previously planned/anticipated.

I did not know this for the longest time, but Newgrounds Moderator is a voluntary (and completely unpaid) position. This isn't "their job", this is what they do after they are done with their day-job.

@[All the Supporters]

If it wasn't for your continued contributions, none of us could use Newgrounds today and we'd have to bide our time on cesspools like YouTube, Instagram, or DeviantArt. *Yuck!*

@[You]

Thank You! to all of you who didn't do something crazy or stupid today. I mean it! You're already helping NG, just by showing the restraint of a regular human being.

[Space for Editing by Future-Yatsufusa]

(I'll mark this space in advance for the benefit of the readers. It is meant for adding the people I forgot about and who I will remember 5 hours after clicking that [Submit Post]-button...

These users will be added in order of "I remembered them", rather than alphabetically. Because otherwise this will become one big nightmare for everyone who reads this more often than once...)

@Tyhond

We disagree on rating-methodology, but I maintain that Newgrounds is a better place with him that without him. Entering a new platform can be scary for artists. Especially for young artists - which NG still has a lot of. I vastly prefer Tyhond's unconditional positivity to "What am I looking at?"-reviews and despite our aforementioned, irreconcilable disagreements, I hope our one-Femboy-welcoming-committee will keep doing what he's doing until the servers go dark for the very last time.

DL;DR: Dear Tyhond, I think you have no taste. ;3 ;* ;3 Keep doing what you're doing, please!

@Skoops

Shares good, practical advice on how to improve as an artist. All. the. time!

And sends people to Cube Jail... You can't have one without the other, I suppose.

(Click Here to be Sent to Cube Jail)

@[All the Artists who generously create Tutorials for Others]

Thank you so much for helping others. You did the real work behind my Guides, Tutorials & Other Help-playlist. I'm just a dog pointing at stuff.

Yendor (formerly known as YendorNG)

He is no longer around, but he was helpful, friendly, open, knowledgeable, and generous. You will probably have come across threads where people replied to or quoted a "YendorNG" and were wondering what happened there. He left us, because certain people chose to act in a manner absolutely unbefitting of human beings.

Of all the users who left Newgrounds, including artists, I miss his presence the most. There is a Yendor-shaped hole in our community that nobody has been able to fill so far. But: I wish Yendor and his new community the best! They are so lucky to have him!

If you want to get an impression of what he is like, there is still an interview that Aalasteir recorded with him.

I will not list TomFulp, because that would be too reminiscent of toxic personality cults, from #name censored# (failed science fiction writer and successful scam artist) to #name also censored# (failed businessman and successful scam artist).

Lastly, something personal

A little over 3 months have passed since this whole thing happened. I still do not feel "chill" about it, but I can look at your avatars again without feeling too bad. So I unblocked you again.

@BlakeTakesTheCake (formerly BlakeyTakeyTheCakey)

@GrecoStone

@NoobClock666

I am also very sorry for blocking @BlakeTakesTheCake! As it turns out, he went out of his way to edit his original voting post within minutes after my reaction to his post, removing my name. I just didn't see it because I had already blocked him and nobody told me about it either. (Presumably because of the rule against passing notes from blocked users to those blocking them.)

Sadly, I was not in a good place back then and did not expect that kind of reaction anymore after having certain people essentially tell me that I feel the wrong way.

Please Note: If you were listed here and are displeased with the way I present you or do not want to be listed at all, send me a PM. There is no time limit for editing News Posts, so if you change your mind two years along the line, that's fine as well. Of course the same goes for situation where you change your pronouns or username. (Except Aalasteir! You're a name-changing addict! You need an intervention!)

Addendum 2025-04-07-A: Some Tyhond added; some typos removed. (English isn't my first language and I am always tired when I log into NG. Can you tell...? ;) )

Addendum 2025-04-07-B: Added Skoops & [All the Artists who generously create Tutorials for Others]. (What can I say? When it rains, it pours!)

Addendum 2025-04-10: Some very belated, but well-deserved recognition for Yendor/YendorNG. He was one of the best of us.

Addendum 2025-05-09: Yendor, if you're reading this, I'd like to share this link with you. Enjoy! ;)

Addendum 2025-05-10: I don't know if it's really him, but... This happened.

Addendum 2025-06-26: ♪ At first I was afraid, I was petrified... ♫

Well, I was a bit anxious at first to say the least. Cautiously optimistic, but anxious. After all, it's harder to trust the word of others after your trust was betrayed so many times.

This has been the final building block in an ever-growing wall of "Come on, that's probably Yendor..."

If you'll excuse me for s moment, I'm going to add this to a certain playlist now...

There are simply not enough entry-level tutorials about music production on NG. Yendor did our community a solid!

Just a little reminder: Some people are bad at "jokes" but today being a special day, even those people might try their hand at "being funny".

You don't have to laugh, but tradition demands that you forgive them.