I enjoy the anachronistic sword and shield.

After seven episodes, it looks as if Yuusha no Kuzu (Scum of the Brave) isn't really my sort of anime. It's fine, and nothing about it bugs me. However, I'm also not very interested in the world it's created, with modern day fights between basically superpowered mercenaries and various crime lords and assorted deadbeats. Some of it also reminds me of anime based on Japanese role-playing video game clichés, too, although it's not full-on JRPG nonsense. Unfortunately, I'm simply not the right audience for this story. I suppose the animation also is not particularly impressive (like, I don't expect to see clips posted by engagement farms on the social-type media), but it's not poor, and it's certainly never bothered me.

However, I am still watching Yuusha no Kuzu, and I'll probably watch both cours, too, because I fucking love Jougamine Aki's character design. Her weird eyes, her eyebrows that are always slanted, and her two-tone hair tied with a giant ribbon all combine for a game-breaking home run. We're talking GoHands Sukimega constantly squinting Mie Ai levels of excellence here. Topping it all off is Aki's extremely anime high-energy personality. She has the sort of unrelenting motivation that would be irritating in probably any other medium, to say nothing of real life, but totally gets a pass in anime-character form. Now, is there a plot-related reason why Aki looks and acts like that when no one else in the show does? Eh, could be, but it doesn't matter. Aki is great, and I will continue watching Scum of the Brave for as long as she's still in it, doing her shtick.

I am genuinely impressed by these business cards.

I was aware of Ikoku Nikki (Journal with Witch or occasionally Foreign Country Diary) before the Winter 2026 anime season began, but I didn't have much interest in it. However, I noticed it attracted a significant amount of praise each week, so I figured I ought to give it a try. Turns out it is excellent, and refreshingly serious if you're in the mood for some heavier adult-type fare in your seasonal anime content.

Makio should really use a desktop computer instead.

I say heavier, but it's not overly melodramatic or discomfiting, at least through the first seven episodes. The characters' feelings and reactions on display each week feel genuine, and I've never felt as though the series was trying to manipulate its viewers into an emotional response. Part of that probably has to do with how it portrays Makio's penchant for keeping people at arm's length (which naturally brings challenges after volunteering to be her newly orphaned niece's guardian). I suspect even viewers who strongly relate to Makio's discomfort with other people are more likely to commiserate with her internal conflicts than they are to feel secondhand anxiety, necessarily.

Either Makio wasn't trying to keep it from Asa, or she is terrible at hiding things.

Despite being entirely positive about Ikoku Nikki I don't have much to say about the series as a whole or about the episodes individually, so far. I am glad that the source manga is complete, so we're more likely to get a full adaptation with a real conclusion. I don't know if the current pace means if it will finish in a single cours or if more will be required, but I'm at least optimistic viewers won't be left unsatisfied.

I'm glad she still has that thing. And that other thing.

I am enjoying Sousou no Frieren 2nd Season (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2) for pretty much the same reasons I liked the first season, and for probably all the same reasons why the series is hugely popular. It's a pleasant show with small adventures packaged in an anime that looks beautiful basically all the time.

Tell her she looks nice, you idiot.

Since it started a couple weeks later in the Winter 2026 anime season, there have only been four episodes so far. I've read there are also only going to be 10 episodes this time around (there were 28 in the first season), so I don't expect the "Golden Land" to appear unless there's a second cours. To be honest, I had forgotten how many other events occurred between where the first Frieren season left off and the start of the Macht-focused stories. I had to check the manga again to refresh my memory.

It worked out anyway.

Not wanting to break off after starting an arc does explain the abbreviated Winter 2026 cours, although I'm not entirely sure if this means the second season will also end at episode 10, with a hiatus before an eventual third season. Maybe there will be an announcement for some sort of continuation such as "Second Season Part Two" or the like. That sort of nonsense does seem to be all the rage. For more uninterrupted Frieren, I'll take it.

There is going to be so much merch.

The first episode of each new iteration of Pretty Cure tends to be fairly strong. However, even viewed through that lens, I'm especially positive about the Meitantei Precure! (Star Detective Precure!1) premiere. It crammed in a lot of engaging material and character interactions that kept the episode lively. Admittedly, that tends to be typical of how Pretty Cure seasons start, but seeing this come after a long stretch of somewhat lackluster (frankly, boilerplate) Kimi to Idol Precure♪ (You and Idol Precure♪) episodes, I was glad to see Pretty Cure display so much verve again.

An actual combined transformation sequence!

I was also glad to see Meitantei Precure! sprinkle so many "show, don't tell" clues to guide young viewers toward their own deductions. This is a detective show, after all, but it's nice to see the characters act first upon grasping the situation before circling back to talk the audience through their reasoning. Unfortunately, some of the best clues in the first episode relate to something I (and presumably most people) already knew, since it's part of the show's description. If you know literally nothing about the Star Detective Precure! setting, I encourage you to watch the first episode before reading any further or learning anything else about it. I can't claim this is an important spoiler, but I would have enjoyed discovering the following while watching the anime instead of simply reading about it weeks earlier.

Did you two just simultaneously Pretty Cure Shooting Star that thing?

Specifically, the first episode of Meitantei Precure! opens by revealing it takes place on January 24, 2027, Akechi Anna's 14th birthday. After a series of mysterious magical events, Anna meets Kobayashi Mikuru, who aspires to join the CUREtto Detective Agency. It ends up being a pretty full day for the both of them from there, so I'm willing to give Anna a pass (despite her normally keen attention to detail) for not noticing how much the weather has changed. It turns out she's traveled back in time to April 2, 1999. This immediately raises a whole lot of questions, but I'm eager to see how Star Detective Precure! intends to address (or outright ignore) them.

I, at least, appreciated all the Wink service.

Unfortunately, this sort of eagerness was absent most of the time as I watched Kimi to Idol Precure♪. Very early on, I described it as being "normal." What that ended up meaning was that it stayed sort of perfunctory. I don't want to seem too critical about You and Idol Precure♪, but that may be unavoidable. Even though I don't think it's "bad" the way Delicious Party♡Precure was Bad, I can still probably name 20 Pretty Cure seasons that I liked more. Assuming my memory is not being overly generous towards the previous generations, this places You and Idol surprisingly low on the tier list considering how much potential I thought it had, but I suppose that's the actual crux of the problem, alas.

Note 1: Star as in superstar. Meitantei is generally translated to mean "famously great detective" in the context of Meitantei Conan (i.e., Detective Conan, also localized as Case Closed).

This scene took me by surprise.

Through three1 episodes, Shibou Yuugi de Meshi wo Kuu. (Shiboyugi: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table) has been a lot more unusual than I was expecting. It's a death-game show, sure, and that part of it is not particularly novel. However, its leisurely pace and unconventional visuals are weird without being annoying. Those factors, and the method the series adopted to avoid showing gore, all contribute towards keeping me interested. ShibouYugi at least feels like something I've not seen before. Okay, technically I've seen this pacing before. Shiboyugi shares a director (Ueno Souta) with Gimai Seikatsu (Days With My Stepsister), and it shows.

Yes, the scenes very often show only limited detail. No, they're not all in this aspect ratio.

Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table also has non-linear storytelling, at least if we assume Yuuki is being truthful about the first episode's game being her 28th round, and the one in the second and third episodes being her 10th. Whether or not that's going to be an important factor later or not, I have no idea, but I'm inclined to suspect not. The anime is based on a light novel series that's still ongoing. I don't know if the light novel is also non-linear, or the anime is merely adapting arcs that support episodic television. In either case, I like the series enough that I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

Note 1: The first episode was double-length.