As I get this review of this first Winter Anime season in 2023 out, I realize that most shows are already at the halfway point and or delayed due to some covid production issue or whatnot, sadge. The amount of shows this season, the pure volume is huge and with that said, I’ve gotten even lazier in reviewing things and outright skimming them when it is immediately apparent that I would not watch the show or it isekai trash off the bat, although I do give interesting ones a shot if it seems ok within the first 5 or so minutes in. As the world continues to be ruined with Chinese balloons invading North America, Earthquakes in Turkey with thousands dying and the major of Toronto, long time former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion dies, John Tory resigning due to cheating with a 31-year old former assistant, 2023 is certainly off to a rocky start, but who knows; at least anime is stick rolling.

High Card – Seems like an original show about some magical cards or some shit that gives whoever holds it some power. With that said, this is essentially a gay show even though they try their best to not make it seem like it. Pass.

Ayakashi Triangle – Ninja boy who has a childhood friend that attracts ghosts or demon youkai things gets tries to protect his friend but in the process gets gender swapped into a white haired big boob ninja girl instead with no immediate way to reverse it. So, yea it’s one of those kind of shows, fanservice boob shows with cute girls everywhere, including the main character which is now a girl. Ok. The premise doesn’t really matter as what you are here for is the girls and the boobs. From my understanding the illustrator or author of this has done famed fan service boob show To Love-Ru so that’s worthy cred I guess but yea, not really my thing. Pass.

Cool Doji Danshi – A bunch of gay guys.

Eiyuuou, Bu wo Kiwameru Tame Tenseisu – Fantasy isekai show about a old king who on his deathbed wishes to be reborn. I can’t remember if it is reborn into the same world or another one but in either case it doesn’t matter because the king is reborn but as a girl and is apparently gifted in sword arts and such. Even though she doesn’t have ‘mana’ per se but some other higher magic that people don’t really understand that is actually better, sure. Yea, the mechanics need to be better explained but that’s ok. This show takes on the path of Rudeus, in that the main character starts from scratch, being born as a baby. While so far it’s a typical isekei with a cute girl the most important thing about this show is that the character designs and art for the original light novel was done by Hololive’s Ina aka Nagu before she made it into hololive as a professional illustrator. With this knowledge alone, this show more or less warrants me wanting to watch this show, for better or worse because Ina made the original designs and characters.  Looking forward to watching more as so far it’s pretty solid with the most important factor, cute girls drawn by Ina.

Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi – The basic premise of this show is that in this modern Japanese world classical youkai like lore beings live together without any real complaints or fanfare, it’s a regular occurrence as they are all visually human and you wouldn’t know otherwise. This is a type of show that has done before but the main character this time is a dude that works in a office that is a descent of a yuki-ona, or rather, snow-women. With that said, this show is heavily targeted for a female audience as our main boy ends up liking his new girl co-worker, both newbies. There are also several other youkai people in the office as well such as budda, fox-girl and such but yea, the focus is on snow-bro. Not sure if it is worth watching more of this but we’ll see.

Kubo-san wa Mob wo Yurusanai – Another one of those shows that involve a plain ass boy who blends into the crowd as the protag, we, that actually is the literally premise of this show, the main boy is a background character and everyone forgets he exists and goes unnoticed by everyone and everything. Of course there is just one girl that sees him in his class, the popular purple haired girl that tries her best to befriend him and ensure that people know that he exists. I’m not sure if you can consider this a romance comedy but more chill, with mild romance tease action which has been the popular genre over the past number of years with Nagatoro, Dress up doll etc. The character designs are bland to say the least so I don’t think there is anything really worth watching here unless people say this is good shit, highly unlikely to watch more.

Ningen Fushin – The basic premise of this show is a bunch of fantasy guys/girls had shit on them and end up having bad things happen to them and they are depressed since they got kicked out of their party, got betrayed, falsely accused of crimes that they did not commit and other such deeds. The main character got kicked out of his longstanding party cause his not-dad said he was not being a good adventurer and then his girlfriend broke up with him as well since yea, she probably a bitch and he’s no longer in the party. There are a cast of other characters that all end up meeting in a pub and drink their sorrows away which include a wizard noble girl that got shamed by her fiancee and wedding cancelled being accused of being a bully, a priest that got accused of touching/raping a young girl even though he didn’t’ do it and the girl cried wolf when he rejected her moves on him, and some dragon girl that is not fully known what her sadness is. After some sad stories about themselves and them taking on hobbies like being an idol otaku, horse gambling, brothel/hostess patron, they all end up becoming a party since I guess they figure, no one likes them now, might as well get together and try I guess. While the show is mildly interesting, I don’t really see much coming out of this show in terms of character design, story or general pacing, they are all mediocre. The main guy looks like FGO Arash. Yea, maybe some might like it, but not for me probably.

Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi – Isekai food show. Guy and several other people are iseki’d into fantasy world from japan, the three seemingly highschoolers characters get to be classic knight, wizard and such. Our last guy, which appears to be a random businessman that got pretty extra in the summoning ritual ends up having no aptitude to do anything and ends up with a skill that allows him to basically order from amazon via a portal and have it teleported instantly in front of him. Yea, ok. So since he’s not needed, the castle basically tells him go do whatever and he goes to an adventurers guild for help to escort him to another city since he has no battle power. With his hired crew he ends up cooking food for them and using ingredients using his ability that he wants to keep secret, like pre made sauce and other shit. His food is so good it attracts a wolf god and he ends up cooking for him and is forced to go into a contract with it since it likes it’s food. Sure. Despite being a food focused show, it’s not really about cooking since the dude just imports food from the otherworld. No girls either. Probably pass unless people say this is good.

Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei – This show I think is a journeying show with two girls that are cast outside of the royal way of life. One of the main girls was engaged to a prince but it was revealed that she was a bitch to others in the castle and her fiancee, which is mainly in it for a political marriage, exposes her poor behavior and cancelled the engagement. The other girl is a hype girl that was born to the nobility but she has no magic power, instead trying to make some kind of other magic arts technique in replace and make up for her lack of skill is kind of like yea, we don’t know what we are going to do with her. After some shit, the two end up meeting and and they essentially run away on a magic broom because yea, magic arts. This some is probably some yuri gay with adventure but yea, not sure. The quality is decent and the chracters are alright but we’ll see. This is one of those shows that can be great or terrible so i’ll have to check what people are saying if I am to watch more.

Technoroid Overmind – Some boys, some gay idol stuff, the usual.

Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko! – Tomo-chan is an interesting romance love comedy featuring a tomboy girl with red hair that finally realized that she likes her longtime childhood friend but the problem is that she has a tough time trying to be feminine to appeal to her childhood friend, resulting in her friend to not even really acknowledging that she is a girl, just a bro, a gal bro. To make things more interesting, it’s not like the childhood friend, the dude doesn’t like Tomo either, he basically likes her as well so the two are kind of in this weird tsundere battle where they don’t fully want to admit their true feelings which is main source of comey for this show. With a cast of equally if not more funny and jokes side characters such as her friend that toys with them both, this show is pretty good. Will probably watch more, good shit.

Ooyukiumi no Kaina – An interesting show about some snow covered post-apocalyptic world where people apparently live in the clouds or something, it’s apparently earth but how far in the future, it’s not clear. The show itself gives some journey’s world building vibes, a bit like to your eternity but the main problem of this show is that it’s 3d. Yea, that’s pretty much a almost instant dead on arrival for me and many people. The main guy is some smart guy who can read “signs” which are literally old Japanese signs for roads and shit which in this world have become some kind of ancient relic or holy scriptures, which is like lol what. There is some other girl that is the main girl but she is pirate raided or something, assuming she is royal or princess, and gets sent up to the clouds in a balloon to escape. That’s where the main boy and girl meet, as she rescues her from floating up into space. Yea, that’s cool and all but yea, 3d. Sorry.

Revenger – For a name of a show that is so bold, this show is amazingly boring and bland and at it’s core still a gay show for women. It’s just a bunch of dudes who are samurai who have been wronged and well, want to get revenge. The main guy has some bad shit happen to him where he ends up killing his future father in law by mistake and his fiancee ends up killing herself as well or something along those lines. Next, mediocre.

Spy Kyoushitsu – Trying to cash in on the spy/assassin boom in the past few years, this show on paper looks great. You have a bunch of girls who are recruited to become the best spys ever and are all sent to some place/school to become the best spy and do suicide missions. You have a cast of decently attractive girls with decent designs and some best ever spy guy to teach them. Sounds good right? Wrong, this show is so boring and dialogue heavy with cheap animation and very poor pacing. The first episode, which is supposed to draw you in and get you to watch more concluded with the teacher and main girl talking to each other and battling each other in a battle of wits and tricks. Bad, this could have been good but in the end this is just completely forgettable. Next.

Inu ni Nattara Suki na Hito ni Hirowareta – A mini show with a very simple premise, a boy has been reborn as a dog and ends up being picked up by the hot girl in his class before he died. You witness the perspective from the dog, with the girl fondly doting on the dog-boy and with his inner thoughts announced as the girls change, bathe and such. Of course his new owner also has hot friends and they too like pets so you get similar effect with them. While the mini show is ok, it’s driven by pure horni and i’m not sure one that involves the main char being a dog is one for me. Next.

Oniichan wa Oshimai! – Aww yea boi, if you are going to transform into something you better make it into a cute girl. As this show’s name might suggest, you have some hikkomori neet guy one day wake up to discover that he has been transformed into a cute girl much younger than himself. Apparently this was done by his scientist little sister who know appears older than him as she tries to experiment on him. The now main girl/trans is just a typical otaku playing games and visual novels, collecting figures, watching anime, doing nothing. He doesn’t take well to the transformation but adapts to his new form in new ways, which is a matter for jokes. The show is very pastel color and very bright, something that I don’t see that often anymore which is great. Good animation and an interesting although not original premise, I’ll watch this show for sure considering that in episode 2 they had a Guilty Gear Strive cameo, yea boi.

Hyouken no Majutsushi ga Sekai wo Suberu – Something something iceblade magician not an iseaki fantasy garbage trash. Next.

Isekai Nonbiri Nouka – 39 year old man dies of illness gets isekaied, asks to be reborn with ace farming abilities. Yawn, next.

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale – A show intended for girls/women/gays about a girl who lives in a fantasy world where magic is common. For some reason faeries are kinda like slaves, like the small kind and that is not good but the way of the world. Some shit happens and our girl ends up wanting to go to the city to be some kinda of sugar mage or something but the journey there is long so she goes to a slave trader to look for a slave to protect her on her journey. She ends up getting a royal faerie slave that was captured which is the size of a normal human, tall guy with long hair and yea, you get the idea. I suppose you can call this reverse shield hero except for girls. Yea, not for me.

Nijiyon Animation – A mini show based off one of the newer love live animes, the one that’s not about going to the competition and just having fun with billy elish.

Ars no Kyojuu – Not sure if this is an original anime but it certainly feels like it considering it’s non-normal pacing that is somewhat slow. Something about some girl that has some power or was in an experiment ran away. The setting is kind of a fantasy but a little off, whatever. Some pro dude is sleeping and used to be something or not, ends up doing some shit with the girl to save her while she was gong to blow up or something and jump in the water while the guards had her cornered at the dock. Has some girl with a cat permanently on her head which is cute. Other than that, this show is completely forgettable and no one will care after this season, pass.

Buddy Daddies – Two guys that are gay are assassins because of course they are and end up doing a mission to kill some rich guy and they unknowingly create an orphan in the process and the little girl didn’t know that her father what the target and never meet him before, she was there to meet him for the first time. Yea, you know this formula. Pass.

Tsunlise – A interesting show about a girl and a guy in the modern day games club and the girl is really into otome dating sim games so she convinces the boy to play with her. During there play session, there is cuts to the in game world, and it turns out that the duo’s commentary and speech can be heard by some of the characters in the game, making it a super immersive and jokes experience. I would classify this a a fairly unique romance comedy between the players of the game but also in some weird way, also the characters in the game since the main girl loves the main villianess of the game, which is a new top trope trend lately which is also a thing. Not bad so might watch more but in an already packed crowded season, not sure if I will remember to watch it or even download it. We’ll see.

Kaiko sareta Ankoku Heishi (30-dai) no Slow na Second Life – The very prime example of mediocre bland isekai trash. I skimmed this shit so hard I don’t even know the premise and it doesn’t even matter really. Shit show.

Hikari no Ou – Some journeying show about a girl in a world japan-like ancient where for some reason a curse or something happened after a war and all of a sudden people became easily combustible like paper or tinder. This of course is pretty bad as you can’t really have civilization without fire so lots of shit happened and people died from fires. Some time has passed since then and people learned to adapt to live without fire for some reason and generate other forms of heat that doesn’t require fire like steam or shit, yea. There are monsters that they need to harvest for energy or some shit and some girl ended up in the middle of some hunt and the hunter died trying to protect her. Some shit happens and she is basically banished from her village/family unwanted and has to head to the capital to tell the family of the dead hunter the news and make amends or something. Yea, this show has an interesting world but they are kinda butt ugly. Yea, not enough here to watch more, no personality in characters or world, just kinda dead feeling, which is intentional I guess. Pass.

Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsunomanika Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken – Another long ass anime light novel visual novel name which roughly translates into “The angel next door spoils me rotten” or something like that and is a mild romance/slice of life/relationship/comedy/drama involving a dude that is pretty basic but ends up living next door to the school idol in his school’s class/grade. The main boy lives a main boy life of being a main boy student, meaning he lives a messy life with a messy apartment and always eats out or not at all. Once his schoolmate neighbor finds out about his poor quality of living, she can’t help but cook him meals and help clean up his place. He, being the main boy, just goes along with it and is thankful. He doesn’t want people to think they are dating so his weird relationship with the main girl is kinda like, “yea, act like you don’t know me when we are at school.” kind of thing. The girl is pretty shiny and pretty good but lacks a bit of personality at first, which I’m sure will be built upon as the show continues. For what it is, it’s pretty base and simple but it does kind of work. The animation is not bad and the character designs what you would expect. Might watch more but we’ll see how I feel.

Trigun Stampede – So they decided to do a remake of the classic 90’s space cowboy scifi western anime loved by all white people for the new generation but it just sucks ass and falls fall. First and foremost, 3d anime, that’s already a big fail and has immediately got me checked out mentally but even then the show goes to great lengths into re-imagine or re-frame the original trigun with a new vash the stampede that is just stupid, dumb and annoying, like actually possibly retarded. While the original vash was stupid and dumb, he wasn’t retarded and had some charm and bad ass moments, this new one just ain’t right; that boi, he ain’t right. Blessed with zoomer youth haircut and gen z fashion sense, he looks like a side character from cyberpunk 2047 but not. Yea, this is shit. For no one basically. Shit show.

UniteUp! – Gay Idol boy show that is better than average for a first episode because the main boy didn’t want to be an idol but his friend secretly recorded him during karaoke sessions and have been uploading his singing on youtube where he got popular without his own knowledge. His friend ended up submitting an application for his friend to join a famous idol company probably because he is gay and wants his boy to success in being an idol. Some shit happens and he ends up accepting because he’s the main boy. Yea, more interesting than most gay boy idol shows but ultimately it’s the same. Not bad, but not for me.

NieR Automata Ver1.1a – After just passing it’s 5th year anniversary of the release of the original game Nier gets an anime to much rejoicing of fans. While there has been much skepticism of how an anime adapt such a complex game with multiple branching routes and endings in a cascading locked order, it is obvious that series director Yoko Taro has to make some adjustments. However, what i’ve seen so far is pretty impressive and will definitely continue to watch more of this, especially since new lore and the world can be revealed in the show that was not in the game, which is why it’s 1.1a. Gud shit.

Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha S2 – Oh shit, I never thought I would see another season of Anos Voldigold and his two good bitches that he saved their life through some magic and time travel shit. Either way, everything seems to be in order and loosely picked off from the end of the first season with the villain learning the error of his ways and coming back into the fold. With a crew of girls and a few dudes, I wonder what else this straight to the point power creep re-born fantasy school demon lord world will have. Good shit, good character designs, premise and girls, and most importantly the main dude is not a wuss but a lad lad badass. Good shit, will watch for sure.

Saikyou Onmyouji no Isekai Tenseiki – Trash isekai comedy that I skimmed. Nothing worthy of note, pass.

Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san S2 – Oh boy, Nagatoro returns in this S2 with wuss glasses boy and our top dark skinned/tanned teasing girl with all her friends. Nothing much to say about this show really other than it continues after the first season and the school art show festival. Good quality and one of the most well known characters in recent times in popular anime culture, will watch for sure.

Rougo ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai no Kinka wo Tamemasu – Ahh, another isekai show but for once this one is a little bit different in the sense that this time a girl is the only survivor of her family after a car accident and after some time, ends up accidentally almost being killed herself as well when she was pushed off a cliff until some unseen god power saves her and isekais her into the fantasy world. As she wakes up she slowly begins to see the new mechanics of the world and after some shit, ends up automatically learning the language of that world since this is isekai after all and gains the ability to travel between the regular world and this new fantasy one. Upon learning of her ability, she decides that she wants to create a business of some sort and try to earn money in the fantasy world by selling things from her own and save for her retirement, with her goal being 80,000 gold coins. The show itself is kinda jokes in premise with her dead otaku brother chiming in her headspace as to what she should do and pointers/advice on what she should do. I like the premise and the girl so i’ll try to watch more of this, good shit.

Bofuri S2 – The real shield hero returns, with Maple and friends doing their shit in the game and increasly being OP at it. While I enjoyed the first season, i’m not sure if I will continue this as this seems to be following a pattern of shows that have no ending and will probably never end, just like Slime and Overlord. We’ll see, espeically since it feels that the quality of the show has dropped a bit, not to say that the first season what amazing in quality either in terms of animation. We’ll see how I feel.

Fumetsu no Anata e S2 – Ah yes, “Take em” continues and yea, hopefully this ends good. Will watch and continue for sure.

Nokemono-tachi no Yoru – Furry fantasy shit for women and furries. Skim that shit, pass.

Benriya Saitou-san, Isekai ni Iku – When you think this season has enough Isekai, they throw another one at you but for once this one is actually pretty good and jokes. The basic premise is that a handyman died in a car accident and finds himself in fantasy world again and ends up becoming a key member of a akward group of adventurers, namely a female armored warrior, a old wizard that is op but very forgetful and a tiny fairy that loves money and coin. While strange at first, the handyman fits right in with the crew and enjoy a variety of joke fantasy segments and make fun of common fantasy/isekai tropes. There are cut in to other adventurers not necessarily related to the main party and are like one off profiles which are in and of themselves pretty jokes such as the introduction of a dwarve mage, fraud hero that’s actually the demon lord, a female berserk elf and her masochistic priest friend, loli huge axe warrior and buff man as the healer; jokes shit. The format suggusts the original was a 4koma and it’s pretty good, fast and gets the gags and jokes out quick. Pretty good quality animation for what it is and good pacing. Will definitely watch more of this, gud shit.

Kyokou Suiri S2 – Wow, I never thought that they would make a S2 of this show, aka “inSpecture” or something like that a few years ago but where we are. Our one legged one eyed heroine is back ready to make everyone smooth brained as she explains layers and layers of narrative dialogue filled with big words, metaphors, lies and misdirection all for the sake of being big brained and solving a ghost mystery. It makes the Waver Fate anime logic like a kindergartner fight with whoever says i’m the winner first in comparison. However, because of this, I am probably unlikely to watch more of this because I am too dumb and impatient, I want faster stories and faster explanation, not drawing out an entire story arc for one 12 episode season. Not bad, but too big brained for me.

D4DJ All Mix – Music man, based off a music game. Skimmed that shit, yea, not for me.

Mou Ippon! – In theory this should be good, it’s essentially a Judo show with girls in school but the problem is that the girls, they are too ugly and unattractive. For a show that’s supposed to be a easy win formula, this Judo show really makes it hard for anyone not involved with the sport to pay attention especially when the girls are mediocre at best and the character designs so bland and gray. Yea, skimmed this shit after like 10 minutes, pass, not for me.

And there you have it, this season is largely filled with isekai trash and sequals, both good and bad. Once again, there is no mecha to be seen and still a large lack of slice of life shows, which I want more of and comedy. At some point I wonder if the isekai trend will ever dry up, but with this amount and volume, I doubt so for many years to come.

Anyways, here is another screencap from Ina’s anime; Eiyuuou, Bu wo Kiwameru Tame Tenseisu, aka Nagu’s anime. Noice credits, she must be so happy.