The schedule. A season for me it seems.
Dance Dance Danseur, Kingdom, Kotaro Lives Alone and SPY×FAMILY are all fine but nothing special.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 S2 drops on May 23rd and I wonder what the real story of this incarnation is about. The trailer is about WW V breaking out. (IV happened right before most versions of GitS begin). How timely…

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Gekitotsu will amount to 24 eps by the end. I am pretty sure that this will form 2 12 ep cours and not an uninterrupted run. 8.5/10

Spriggan finally drops on June 18th. That CG is chef'skiss.meme and comparing the Noa´s Arc segment from the trailers to the somewhat changed movie scenes leaves a respectable impression. Metal Gear Shounen here we come. I wonder if Kojima will mention it on Twitter.

Thermae Romae Novae adapted up to chapter 17 (of 38) while skipping chapters 6, 8, 10 and 14. The noticeably weaker 1st and 7th episodes are anime only and 7 of the episodes are based on 30-page chapters so the content is expanded beyond reason at times. The anime also invents its own epilogue that makes the time travel romance that begins in chapter 18 of the manga and then continues for the rest of the series impossible. So this is half an original anime with a somewhat changed characterization of the now more buffoonish protagonist. I could have lived without some rather jarring CG use and the show looks a bit too “yellow” at times but the end result is superior to the no-budget adaptation from 2012 and whatever the hell those movies were. Not a replacement for the award-winning manga but a fine watch anyway. I wouldn´t mind seeing the rest adapted but don´t expect it to happen. 7/10

Ultraman S2 finally releases in mid-April. S1 was better than the manga despite a much faster pace and due to plot chages. The arc this will adapt is the best part of the manga. I wouldn´t mind if the anime makes up a sort of ending this time as the manga´s well is clearly running dry after the America arc.

Ya Boy Kongming! The manga/anime´s premise comes together way too fast and it should have been set in China. The few bits of fanservice are totally out of place but the anime axed those it seems. Good. The story is about music so an anime makes perfect sense. P.A. Works is a boring studio but I can´t see them mangling a slice of life comedy and I like that the songs are in English. 7/10

Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island releases in June and will remake the infamous ep 15 of the original show instead of adapting the identically named prequel manga about the titular Cucuruz. I don´t get it and I don´t get the logic behind most Gundam anime of the last decade.
Odd Taxi Movie: In the Woods The shortening and reworking might or might not improve the plot of last year´s under the reader darling but the new epilogue is desperately needed either way.

Last edited by residentgrigo at 8:42 am, Apr 1 2022

________________
I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

I will simply pretend that Bastard!! is part of the next season as it airs on the last day of this season. Not that I am pumped to watch it.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 turned out a bit better than S1 of SAC (the main plot falls apart on a rematch and the cases are a mixed bag) and of course SSS but isn´t as good as 2nd Gig. I guess this is it then? The ending is unsequelisable this time around and it’s nice to see this canon go out on top. The way SSS concluded it all was a bit of a wet blanket but SAC_2045 really went for it once the real plot was revealed. The show can look weird when people just sit around or when everything is bathed in sunlight but most of the CG work really works. A shame that this team´s Blade Runner had none of these qualities or the budget. Brush up on the basic ideas behind Orwell´s 1984 before watching S2 and there are many "of the moment" political references interspersed throughout. A common occurrence in US media but less so with anime. In conclusion: The struggle was finished. Section 9 won the victory over itself. 2002-2022. 8.5/10

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Gekitotsu remained as good as ever. 8.5/10

Spriggan cut Yoshino out of the cold open that is based on the manga´s pilot and made it almost incomprehensible due to how much was cut from that mission. Everything else on the other hand is one of the most accurate adaptations in recent memory. The story is simply transplanted from the early 90s into 2022 and the Legend of the Mask arc that stretches from Chap 5 to 16 is MIA as of now as it is too long to fit into 45 minutes. Also missing is the 2nd half of Vol 4 and all of 5 and 6 as ep 6 is based on the first half of Vol 7. Its post-credit stinger sets up the rest of Vol 4 so David Production is clearly committed to adapting the whole series if we get lucky. The ONA is gorier than the other versions and every cent of the production budget that was missing from JoJo Part 6 ended up here. The audiovisual presentation is top-notch! The show has the same issues the Shounen original has but this is the best Metal Gear “adaptation” we will ever see so I won´t bother complaining. I wonder if Kojima´s team ever talked about how much they borrowed from the manga? 2 more seasons pls. 7/10

Ultraman S2 mostly abandoned the manga´s plot right as its source material found its footing and this 6 ep (WTF?) season is basically a movie about the other Ultramen. All but ep 1 look great as they focused on aliens, men in power suits and strategically lit environments instead of a generic city filled with PS2 cutscene onlookers. Another fire and forget Netflix production. I won´t bother with the just-announced final season. 6/10

Ya Boy Kongming! The show run out of money after the pilot and the entire first volume was adapted by the end of ep 2 so P.A. Works continues to be a hack job studio. The words cheap and rushed should never be combined but here we are and it´s not like the manga is a must-read either. A 6/10 at best.

Vampire in the Garden is another sliced-into-pieces film. Bravo Netflix. The story is rushed and mostly nonsensical so it´s a true Wit original. The human lead is too dumb to live and should have been written as a villain. Her antics will lead to people quitting the show early but the setting and animation made me finish this due to the short length. Ultimately a mistake. 5/10

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is filler and comes off as checklist fan fiction but the CG is great so watch it anyway. 6.5/10 Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island is exactly what I feared. 20 minutes of filler stretched into 5 times that length. I don´t understand why the identically named 5-volume prequel manga about Cucuruz´s military career couldn´t have been reworked into the 1st and 2nd act with ep 15 from Gundam 79 being the film´s resolution. 6/10
Sing a Bit of Harmony is too naive and dumb for a sci-fi film and falls somewhere in the middle of Yasuhiro Yoshiura´s filmography. 6/10 Space Battleship Yamato 2205 Kosho -STASHA- The last one was a slow burn so everything had to happen at once here. This leads to a barely developed villain and overall conflict. The film simply ends with the crew flying to the next mission. Weird. All sorts of subplots going back to the first show were put to bed on the other hand and the visuals remain strong. 7/10

Last edited by residentgrigo at 7:36 am, Jun 25 2022

________________
I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb