So how do you a seasonal anime podcast when you’re not watching much new anime? Join Jel, Iro, Gee, and Aqua as we talk anime and anime-adjacent news, look back at anime turning 10 this season, and discuss the two very good shows we “are” watching.
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Opening Song: “Emotional literacy” by BRADIO
Closing Song: “OTONA HIT PARADE” by BRADIO
Show Notes
3:59 So what are we going to talk about since we aren’t watching many new shows this season?
8:17 What have we been watching and/or playing since last episode?
News
18:05 RIP Monkey Punch
22:32 RIP Kazuo Koike
26:54 Madhouse PA seeks compensation for overwork (full story)
42:25 P.A. Works wants to do a new project with Jun Maeda
46:52 SSSS.GRIDMAN and other notable properties nominated for Seiun awards
52:53 Maiden Japan licences Art Club… who is Maiden Japan???
55:20 Heisei era air now for sale for 10 dollars
57:25 Milking Persona 5 – Joker in Smash Bros., Persona 5 Royale, and The Phantom Strikers
1:04:26 Famitsu readers vote Chrono Trigger voted best game of the past 30 years
1:10:10 Anime turning 10 this season
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
K-ON!
Eden of the East
Sengoku Basara
Saki
1:21:04 Is the lack of interesting shows this season legit or are we just getting old?
1:29:54 Carole and Tuesday
- Episode 2: “Born to Run”
- Episode 3: “Fire and Rain”
See if you can spot the Banksy painting in episode 3
1:44:54 Sarazanmai
- Episode 2: “I Want to Connect, but I Want to Take”
- Episode 3: “I Want to Connect, but It’s Not Meant to Be”
The Glorio Blog 
I think just judge a series base on the fact that it on WSJ is bad criticism. After Bleach and Naruto ended, shonen jump seem to have shifted their focus and policy. It and it reader seem to get tired of long running series (and One Piece drop in sale also showed that) so compare today WSJ series with the past is not a good way to judge the current series quality. Next season there gonna be another WSJ shows called Doctor Stone, which i also said like Kimetsu no Yaiba need time to find it footing and that series only get good once they chance the protagonist.
As a Kimetsu no yaiba manga fan, even i can’t defend the early part since it is the author second work and her inexperience show. But it doesn’t take like 80 chapters like you said, it was about 20 chapter when the other characters in the OP show up. Also it seem like people start to confused generic with bad, a show can be full of cliche but if done well can still be good since there a good reason why those cliche resonate with the audience( Ex; MHA) while another could be the most original thing ever but still suck if it’s poorly executed( Ex: School day try to be a deconstruction of harem anime but turned into the worst thing ever due to terrible character desicion).
I don’t think any of us think Demon Slayer is BAD necessarily (I actually like it a decent bit, otherwise I wouldn’t have read as much of the manga as I have) but I also have to recognize that it follows a specific set of tropes that we’ve come to associate with, well, old Shonen Jump series that we grew up with. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, but it certainly makes it harder for Demon Slayer to distinguish its own unique strengths in comparison.
“Is the lack of interesting shows this season legit or are we just getting old?”
I’m really starting to feel like it’s the latter case for me. I’ve been watching anime for a fairly long time now (case in point, I watched the first Fruits Basket anime as it aired) and while I’m still not at the point of being burned out on the stuff, mostly I think because I never felt the need to Watch Everything! in any given season, I do feel more and more disconnected from the overall fannish Zeitgeist, so to speak. Also, I’m feeling a lot less generous and more easily bored.
Case in point: Carole & Tuesday. You guys love it, people everywhere seem to love it, people are being all “Watanabe saves anime again” and whatnot, and yet I’m sitting here feeling like “Watanabe, is this really the anime that you give us in the year of our lord 2019?” It’s like, sure, it’s well-crafted, well-executed, tons of easter eggs & references, etc… but me, I see tropes upon tropes upon tropes, which I find especially irritating because it’s been 4 episodes and I literally know nothing about these characters other than the tired old tropes they have standing in for personality and relationships (and in some cases even voice acting), and so far there wasn’t an episode that offered anything to surprise me or make me feel excited about what comes next. I see people being excited about the show, and I’m here scratching my head. Am I the only one who would have wanted to see Carole & Tuesday becoming friends instead of the “let’s get this part out of the way” type shortcut we got? Am I the only one who finds the “human music and talent vs evil soulless AI-standing-in-for-idols” thing trite so far? (Am I the only one who thinks the girls’ music is actually not all that awesome?) So far I’d say I enjoyed Bakumatsu Rock a lot more than I’m enjoying Carole & Tuesday, which is so weird to say but I can’t help it.
I have the same issue with, say, Fairy Gone – at least Carole & Tuesday is interesting to look at, but Fairy Gone is just mind-bogglingly Stereotypical Anime from the characters to poses to scene and shot compositions. Same with Sirius the Jaeger. And yet I see around and people are praising them as breaths of fresh air, etc. So. I know it’s not a problem with tropes as such, because I loved Megalo Box, I loved Double Decker although to be fair that was a very self-aware show, I love all the Macrosses… It’s the execution, the way some shows try to just kind of build a house from the trope-bricks and are content to leave it at that, maybe with some nice painting, while others try to be, I dunno, creative about it. And it’s the latter I see less and less nowadays.
I think we’re a little more ambivalent on Carole and Tuesday than it may have come off, or at least we all have slightly different opinions on it. For me personally, I think it’s a nice, safe show that I’m certainly enjoying, but I also agree with a lot of your criticisms.
To the overall question, I would lean toward saying it’s more this season than us. We’ve been watching a lot of shows all the way up to last season, and looking through the shows airing now I’m not seeing anything I would have stuck with 10 years ago either. That said, we’ve been in this game a long time and I think we do feel a measure of fatigue from all the low to mid-tier anime we’ve slogged through.