Winter 2024 Anime Season Roundup
Written by Rei Caldombra 3/27/2024 Video version: https://youtu.be/OuJOMb1WIg8
Time to conclude this season giving my general thoughts on what I watched. There will be no direct spoilers for any shows. I think this was a great season and start of the year! Everything I stuck with I really enjoyed!
This was a big season for fantasy. Dungeon Meshi, Frieren, Mashle S2 and The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic all brought different flavors and takes on fantasy.
Dungeon Meshi is ridiculously funny and creative while crafting an engrossing world. As someone who has played a lot of D&D, this really hit the spot on that itch. If I had to pick a particular episode that stood out to me this season I would go with Dungeon Meshi episode 3. It has everything that has made Dungeon Meshi engrossing and endearing so far. I’m really looking forward to the exciting ways Dungeon Meshi is developing its story and themes. I highly recommend this show to anyone.
Frieren has a wonderful magic system, endearing characters and beautiful visuals and atmosphere. It is filled with themes that give viewers a lot to think about during its calmer moments along with awesome fights when things pick up. Everyone is gushing over this show, so you probably know what makes it so beloved. It is super close to being my favorite, and I wouldn’t seriously judge them against each other because they are so different. It’s excellent and is my favorite of this batch of good fantasy shows.
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic gave us a refreshing interpretation of healing magic and the role of a healer, a topic I especially love that does not get enough focus in most series. It may not have the heights of the other shows this season and does stumble a bit in the middle in terms of pacing, but I think the payoff is solid. It does good at doing what it is going for, and that is good enough when I am particularly interested in that. If you don’t have as much interest in healing magic and/or are bothered by slower pacing, I can understand giving this one a pass or dropping it. I like it, but it is the least great of what I watched.
Mashle S2 continues to be very funny, juggling magical parody with genuinely cool magic stuff pretty well. It falls into the pitfalls of the stereotypical action anime that it usually intends to subvert, and the comedy may be starting to lose its luster as we continue to get more of it. While some issues I had remain, one point of criticism got some solid development alongside a bunch of great new characters. I liked this season but I would put it on par with the first rather than being a major improvement. I don’t think this season would change any feelings about this series.
Yubisaki to Renren gave me the wholesomeness that I always look for in a season, and it ended up being my favorite show of the season. You can read my reviews on the episodes to get my more in-depth thoughts. I’ll say that this is a romance that feels far more mature and natural than a lot of the romance I’ve seen while having an absolutely adorable main couple. The characters are very charming and have great development. It’s not perfect but its flaws are very minor. My biggest recommendation from this season is if you enjoy romance and great characters. I had a smile on my face the whole time.
Between Itsuomi from Yubisaki to Renren and Rose from Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, the rest of the characters this year have their work cut out for them to surpass these two as my favorites. Laios is a close second to Itsuomi though.
The only show I tried but ended up dropping was Solo Leveling. We get some great sakuga in the fights but that really is the only major strength for me. One other thing I liked is the way the fantasy elements are integrated in the world. Past that though, I had trouble being interested in the point of these fights. There were multiple times I really did not like the writing. I do not like systems that try to put stats on people in a realistic manner, it has never worked for me when it is taken seriously and it does not here. Without a thesis on biology explaining how a human body can reflect stats I am not getting the amount of detail I would need to suspend my disbelief. It just does not work for me. I went into it expecting a slow grind, but the pacing did not reflect that. I initially liked how it wasn’t edgy, but then it started to move in that direction. This may have been one of the earlier series to do the fantasy isekai tropes on display here, but this is an adaptation happening now. So I’m going to hold it to the current standards, when many of these tropes for me are tired. All the power to you if you like it, but it just does not work for me.
Now to look out into the upcoming season of Spring 2024. Jeez this season is filled with sequels, I counted 12 as of writing this based on MAL’s page. As of right now the shows I will definitely check out are Konosuba S3, My Hero Academia, Kaiju No. 8, Yuru Camp S3, Sound! Euphonium S3, and Bartender: Glass of God. We’ll see if I pick up any others along the way, you never know what show that is perfect for you may have been just off your radar. That was what happened with Yubisaki to Renren. I will also continue to watch Dungeon Meshi.
A show that I previously watched but will not be continuing this season is Demon Slayer. I was not a fan of the previous season, for me that was Demon Slayer at its absolute worst. Uninteresting villains, dragged out fights, long repetitive dialogue, overuse of baiting and twists, and the plot development really didn’t have any impact on me. Early on I disagreed with the opinion of Demon Slayer having little appeal outside of great visuals, but I am more in agreement with that sentiment based on the last two seasons. This upcoming arc does not sound very interesting on top of my disappointment with the last, so I will skip watching it and maybe check out some fight scenes on Youtube instead.
Thank you for spending this season with me! Please look forward to any upcoming posts based on Spring 2024 shows along with any Winter 2024 shows that are close to concluding! Thanks for reading!
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