My Hero Academia didn’t sound like much when I first heard about it, so I kind of forgot it existed. Over the weekend, I was bored and it was available on Hulu, so I watched the first episode.

Then all the rest. It’s pretty good, well-drawn with some genuinely interesting characters, and despite the immensely tedious recaps that pad it out, the story doesn’t suck.

(tip: don’t marathon this show unless you have a convenient and reliable skip-forward button)

The answer is “not much, really”. I bounced hard off of The Orville (which one of my friends actually thinks is great, proving that he’s taken one too many shots to the head (“Hi, Rory!”)), and there really doesn’t seem to be anything else on cable that sounds even vaguely interesting.

Restaurant To Another World

For the most part, nothing really happens in this well-drawn, slow-paced series about why a little hole-in-the-wall Tokyo restaurant really shuts down one day a week. Relationships between the owner/chef and his fantasy-world customers develop slowly, and it looks like there are even a few honest-to-gosh spoilers coming, but for the most part it just drifts along with diner-of-the-week stories and some rare mild fan-service. Next up: the restaurant gets a clothing-challenged second waitress.

Legends Of Tomorrow, season 2

Finally catching up on this show, and wondering why I bothered. I already knew most of what happens, the writers have a pretty shaky grasp of the historical eras the team visits, the main villain was more interesting when played by the other actor, Nate is dull even with powers, Vixen’s WWII-era attitudes appear only when convenient to the plot, etc, etc. I think I’m pretty much done with the Flarrowverse.

Magi?Poka

Mauser reminded me this existed and I never watched it. Short, fun, mostly stand-alone episodes, with cute character designs familiar to anyone who’s seen Hand Maid May et al. It’s a pleasant diversion.

Coming Soon

Kino’s Journey

The only new anime series that I have any interest in right now.

Alice & Zoroku

I really liked the first few episodes, but got sidetracked and haven’t gotten back to it yet. Definitely one worth finishing.

Preacher

Sometime I’ll get around to marathoning the first season, and quite possibly the second. What little I’ve seen of it has been a decent reimagining of the comic, but I just haven’t been in the mood for it yet.

I can’t trace the origin of this NSFW “commercial”. The product is real, but I have just the tiniest little hunch that the video is not authentic.

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A few months ago, I observed that DanMachi must be doing well, because there were two series of spinoff novels, in addition to the manga and the anime.

Well, guess what? There are also two 4-koma manga series (1, 2).

Pretty sure the second season of the main series is on the way, although I don’t see any announcements.

DanSora 11

Good Lefiya: well, that certainly qualifies as “casting while moving”.

Bad Lefiya: just beg for a piece already, sheesh.

Bonus Lefiya: congrats, you finally ended up sleeping with somebody.

More and more, I wish they’d made Tiona the focus character. She’s the most interesting of Aiz’s gal-pals. There’s a novel in this series that’s focused on the Amazon twins, but we’re not going to get anywhere near it this season.

Eromanga-sensei 12

In which sinister dom Sagiri abuses Elf and Dere-Dere-Dere Muramasa in the service of her muse, leaves her subs to suffer as she discovers The Secret Rival, then finds a new ecchi hobby that she doesn’t know dick about. In the aftermath, Megumin provides definitive proof that she is both a virgin and a total noob, and Muramasa demonstrates that she pays attention in art class. Even with her help, though, Sagiri still has a hard problem to solve before she can really nail this new style. Maybe Elf can swipe some videos from her brother, although that might lead to other problems.

Also, bookstore-chan tries the just-kidding-only-serious method, which Our Hero is naturally oblivious to.

If this ends next episode, I’m guessing the big finale will be Sagiri setting foot in the front yard. By the way, if that’s the Aunt in the OP, she’s running out of time to show up.

Slight change to the ED this week, revealing more about Our Hero.

Doctor Who 10.11

The beginning of the end, with terrible Zathras impression. Also, more third-rate meta.

Dark Matter 3.4

I guess every writer and director has a Groundhog Day episode they need to get out of their system. While nothing can live up to the ones done by Xena and SG-1, this wasn’t bad, and made good use of Three’s character development and Anthony Lemke’s talents.

Quote saved to use on Rory:

“No. You can’t just make up your own words. You have to actually repeat the words that I say.”

DanSora 9

In which Lefiya’s hormones go viral, infecting Filvis, and we once again discover exactly where we are in Bell’s story.

Also, I didn’t check the credits, but Hestia’s voice sounded off. Different seiyū for this cameo? [Update: no, it’s her; maybe she just didn’t get back into character for such a brief scene.]

Eromanga-sensei 10

Muramasa takes center stage, and takes over the ED with bikini shots, but what the hell is up with her face in profile? Cute from the front, WTF from the side.

Note to Pete: based on her instinctive use of her left hand to bonk Elf on the head, Love Rival Muramasa is definitely a southpaw, and since she’s such a traditional gal, I think the reason her right hand is always bandaged (besides “character design”) is what my Japanese teacher told me when she caught me with a brush in my left hand:

“Shodō is right-handed.”

DanSora 6

Newsflash: Aiz displayed a new emotion. Okay, it’s a pout, but that’s more than she’d shown in the previous series. Surprisingly, leveling up only took 1/3 of the episode, leaving time for her to pet Bell, pout over his flight-or-flight instincts, then rescue him from prum treachery. And have Loki and her senior staff discuss The Plot.

Eromanga-sensei 7

In which Fierce Rival Muramasa displays all of the emotion that she lacks as Aiz Wallenstein. Seriously, Saori Ōnishi must feel like she’s coming back to life when she switches from recording the wooden princess to this role. On a related note, am I the only one wishing for more editor-san?

Doctor Who 10.6

This episode felt a lot longer than the others. Maybe it’s because it wasn’t written by interns, and actually goes somewhere. Maybe because Moffat realized we all knew who was inside the box. Maybe because Nardole got an opportunity to do more than nag. The villain still feels derivative, but at least there was some variety in the sets.

No, I’m not talking about Jens, although she is the platonic ideal of the trope.

DanSora, episode 5

Big battle! Plot crumbs! Busty villain! Lefiya crushes! Lefiya gets jealous! Loki is 50% less annoying! Aiz shows third emotion! Cliffhanger ending that connects to main story!

Eromanga-sensei, episode 6

“We’ve secretly replaced Our Heroine with the cameraman from Agent Aika; let’s see if anyone notices.”

In the opening scene, bookstore-chan’s relationship level with Our Hero is firmly established: he calls her Tomoe, she calls him Mune-kun. So, childhood-friend level of intimacy, which means she doesn’t have a chance against any of the Strange Cute Girls who’ve entered his life. Speaking of which, this episode adds another one, and There Is Conflict.

In many anime, the “buy the Bluray” hook is “uncensored nudity”. In this one, it looks like it’s “animated Elf scenes”. Last episode had the fat jogger filler, this time they just panned over stills and added some audio.