[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 08 April 2026 - 11:42 AM, said:

Watched the first two eps of WITCH HAT ATELIER and they were...amazing. This has a shot at being something really special. I was enthralled from the first few minutes all the way through both eps. Watched with my daughter, and she also loved them.

started this, it's very cute and elegantly done.

[QuickTidal]

Finished Season 1 of HELL'S PARADISE, the front half the season was slow-ish and took me time to get into, but once everyone was properly introduced and the concepts of the island and its inhabitants are made clear, the back half of the season FLEW by and was straight fire. I can't wait to watch S2 now. What a phenomenal show with great characters and unique concepts.

[QuickTidal]

Finished Season 2 of MY DRESS UP DARLING and it was great! Definitely more of a team vibe more than S1, and I will be interested to see how it ends.

Started another romCom that I heard people discussing, YOU AND I ARE POLAR OPPOSITES and it's even funnier than the above show, I was howling throughout. Super wholesome too.

[QuickTidal]

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 01:17 PM, said:

TO BE HERO X: This one is a Donghua (Chinese anime), but it's a crazy good almost anthology story with various sets of episodes focusing on different heroes in this city where going viral and social media rating gives you powers or increases them, and those episodes all seem to slightly overlap in small ways and come together more in the end. Can't wait for S2 now that everything is set up. The Animation switches were super interesting too.

Was in the mood to re-watch this and man it's even better on a second viewing knowing how all the stories and characters fit together.

[QuickTidal]

MARRIAGETOXIN continues to be absolutely stellar. Of the new anime I'm watching this season, I think it's my fave, better than WITCH HAT ATELIER and DEMONS OF THE SHADOW REALM just by dint of being a little easier to consume on the regular. I've been watching the subbed eps, and then rewatching them when they drop the dub eps. I dunno if there's anything else on CR right now that garners that much of my attention.

I'm VERY tempted to pick up the manga as I love the art style...and seeing as how this weekend is anime North (local convention), I may seek it out.

Oh, and the opening theme is catchy as HELL.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 20 May 2026 - 12:46 PM

[QuickTidal]

Went to Anime North yesterday, daughter dressed up like Sailor Moon and was super chuffed when someone called it Cosplay when she was complimented on it, I think she just assumed she was dressing up, not that it was cosplay. She got the most stuff, some keychains, a wall scroll (Demon Slayer). I didn't get much of anything I set out to find. I wanted a figure/statue of either Maki Ze'nin from JJK (none to be found in ANY of the booths selling figures/staues), Marin Kitagawa from MDUD (the only one I found that was not some risqué bikini-style nonsense was $300, so no), or Karuizawa from COTE (which I found but the price was only like $4 cheaper than online and the box was damaged; and dude was not willing to haggle; so I'll just order it later online), and then I was seeking Manga at Sunday prices....and the scarcity of manga was next level (barely any booths selling any; which was so weird to me), and the only spot selling any amounts of it at all was the Beguiling (which is a comic store in Toronto) and they were selling at CDN cover price (bleccch) and the "deal" they offered was starting at "Buy 5 get 1 free"....like dude, you think I'm spending $100 to get a single $15-20 one free? On Sunday afternoon? This is becuase they are a store that will just bring the stock back to the store and no skin off their nose...still disappointing that there deal was so weak. There WERE a few tables selling at 1/2 US cover price, which is a GREAT DEAL....but alas nothing I was looking for. So in the end I didn't get much (the keychain I bought for my daughter was buy 2 for $10 get the 3rd free, so I got my son a Pokemon one to bring home and got a Chainsaw man one for myself). All in all a decent con, but I'm sad I didn't find much, but super happy my daughter had a blast and got some stuff.

----------------

Speaking of JJK, I re-watched the Culling Game Arc Part 1 (season 3) and got so much more out of it without my preconceived notions, I think a lot of it still feels a LITTLE "bash action figures together" but there's more depth here building for the second half of The Culling Game arc that I didn't notice before. I'm going to dive into the manga on the SJ app now as I don't think I can wait till 2027 or whenever Season 4 comes out to continue the story.

I started Re: Zero, and I am FINALLY impressed by the writing in a fantasy-world Isekai, unlike DanMachi which STRUGGLED for me and I dropped, and unlike GRIMGAR (which only ever got one season sadly), Re: Zero has tonnes of episodes and likeable characters, even if Subaru is hard to like because he's DESIGNED as an unlikable MC in an Isekai...the secondary characters more than make up for it, especially Emilia and Puck. I'm almost through the 2nd arc and while it still feels like a slot of table setting, there is a lot of slice of life here that is enriching the world and I think will head somewhere good.

Caught up to the English dub eps of DAEMONS OF THE SHADOW REALM....and it's still kind of irritating that the Kagemori clan goes from a blood-soaked attack on the hidden village in the first episode to "Hey, we're fine now and we're on your side" SUPER jarring...like I HOPE there will be an explanation down the road for why it's not iso bad or why they had to, but I've not been given it yet and it keeps rattling around in the back of my head, so that's stopping this from being a peak Anime watch and just something I'm going through. I keep hearing that this could be the new big Shounen and I'm simply not seeing it yet...there's nothing her that will grab the viewer after there 1st episode that nears the JJK/MHA/Hell's Paradise set...but again, it could show up and we've just not seen it yet. The Daemon-designs are lacking, only Left & Right, and Gabriel feel interesting so far on that front.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 25 May 2026 - 12:58 PM

[Maark Abbott]

You will be glad to know that Subaru improves. a LOT. I won't spoil anything on the hows and the whys but yeah, he is very much not likeable for a solid duration and it's by design.

[QuickTidal]

Maark Abbott, on 26 May 2026 - 11:39 AM, said:

You will be glad to know that Subaru improves. a LOT. I won't spoil anything on the hows and the whys but yeah, he is very much not likeable for a solid duration and it's by design.

Yeah, I've heard that and you can kind of tell as his own preconceived notions about life are linked to the one he had in Japan as a lazy gamer teen...so I expect the growth, but it's nice to hear that it does indeed shift. It wasn't going to be enough to stop me watching as everything else about it is wonderful and I'm having way too much fun watching, but I did notice for sure.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 26 May 2026 - 12:04 PM

[QuickTidal]

So it turns out what I'm watching with RE ZERO is a repackaging of the first season into 1 Hour Directors Cut of 13 eps instead of how it aired as 25 half hour eps. I'm nearing the end of that so I'm almost to what would be episode 25 and yeah, somewhere around the last 4 or 5 eps I got REALLY invested...

Spoiler

especially in the ep where Rem kicks off to defend Subaru...she's a badass. the villains are creepy and in some cases mysterious....but I think this show really shines in how Subaru is forced to readjust his tactics every time he loses out and dies and every loop gets him closer to the path he NEEDS to take...like the whole Capital arc where all he wants to do is get back to the Mansion to Emelia...but then they all die, and he tries harder and the white whale gets them, and then he tries to recruit people but they reject it and they all die, and then he finally gets to the point where a god [Puck] is like "No dummy, if you push this I have to end the world...go a COMPLETELY different way dingbat"...to him finally realizing that his goal should NOT be getting back to Emelia, but rather to help the world around him and THAT will solve the issue...like the people at the mansion die because Roswaal is not there and the Witch's Cult attacks...and Subaru's actual path forward is to help the varying groups in the capital defeat the White Whale, and their trust in him over THAT allows them to help him defeat the Witch's Cult who WOULD attack the mansion, thus saving the Mansion and the people in the nearby towns AND Emelia...like it's insanely pathed to get there, but man that was SATISFYING.

Also I know Emelia is probably endgame for Subaru...but GODDAMIT Subaru Rem is LITERALLY throwing herself at you dawg, and she's awesome!she wants a farm and kids with you in the quiet country outside Lugunica...take the life man.

It also feels like this is a deliberate deconstruction of the Isekai genre? Like Subaru's growth (which is obvious to me now; thanks Maark for pointing that out as it did come true) is 100% a deconstruction of the sort of male power fantasy MC's in most of these....like he acts like they all do at first but he's brutally and repeatedly punished for it...like the world is forcing him to be better and grow...it's not something you usually see in these types of anime.

Anyways, I'm in for the duration. Finishing up Season 1 and then of the two OVAs I'll only be watching the Emelia backstory one, as the other is largely considered fluff, and then onto Season 2.

And I MAY dive into the Light novels if it keeps up at being this interesting, just to get a better handle on the world.

EDIT:

This scene (end of Ep 15) is the one that really truly got me...

Spoiler

He just got done fighting with Betelgeuse, who has killed Rem, and carries her in inexplicable deep snow to the keep where he knows everyone else is dead too, and there, huge and imposing, is the god (Puck), denying him, head lopped off....and the credits roll for so long over that shot too, blood red on snowy white...just chilled me to the bone. I was ALREADY messed up by Rem being killed...and then that? Ooof. It should also speak to the quality of the show that even though I know his death will reboot them in the most recent sleep and everyone will still be alive again, that I was still really upset at Rem dying here...or when she sacrificed herself to the White Whale so they could escape and then everyone forgot her (which I now know is due to Sin Archbishop of Gluttony)? Goddamn this show does characters well.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 01 June 2026 - 01:05 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Yeah, it's definitely a deconstruction of the isekai male power fantasy stuff. And at four seasons in let me just say that he does not EVER get used to the death loop in the sense of thinking it's nothing, because he remembers every moment of absolute pain, and some of the deaths are pretty horrid.

The manga goes darker than the anime - the sequence in the mansion where Rem brains him with the morningstar, his eyeball rolls up next to her with some splatter. They really play into the fact that his ability is not a pleasant thing and that he SUFFERS for it. But it does mean that as a character he ends up with a lot more depth than Average Isekai Man, and the series benefits from it hugely.

[QuickTidal]

Maark Abbott, on 02 June 2026 - 06:40 AM, said:

Yeah, it's definitely a deconstruction of the isekai male power fantasy stuff. And at four seasons in let me just say that he does not EVER get used to the death loop in the sense of thinking it's nothing, because he remembers every moment of absolute pain, and some of the deaths are pretty horrid.

The manga goes darker than the anime - the sequence in the mansion where Rem brains him with the morningstar, his eyeball rolls up next to her with some splatter. They really play into the fact that his ability is not a pleasant thing and that he SUFFERS for it. But it does mean that as a character he ends up with a lot more depth than Average Isekai Man, and the series benefits from it hugely.

Yeah for sure. And you'd think the darkness would get to me, but it keeps other stuff JUST light enough so the whole thing isn't drowning in bleak...the bright sunshine and colours definitely help.


Finished Season 1

Spoiler

Was not expecting the trickery of LETTING Petelgeuse into his body so the witch could reject him and THEN they kill him....that was dope. And of course the directors cut has the bit from ep 1 of S2 after the credits where we learn that Rem really has been forgotten even in the newer loops. Nice cliffhanger.

I also watched FROZEN BOND, the OVA about Emelia's past. It was fine. Nothing special and honestly not worth an hour and a half of just her and Puck...like this could have been told in shortish flashbacks in the season. but yeah fine. Nothing special.

Started Season 2, already solid.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 02 June 2026 - 11:24 AM

[Maark Abbott]

What in sam hell is a 'Rem'?

[QuickTidal]

Maark Abbott, on 02 June 2026 - 07:06 PM, said:

What in sam hell is a 'Rem'?

Rem's response to this:

 RemAngry.jpg (86.55K)
Number of downloads: 0

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 03 June 2026 - 11:22 AM

[Maark Abbott]

i don't know who that is my guy, never seen her before

(welcome to THE MOST enduring joke in this fandom)

[QuickTidal]

....Quiet rage....

LOL

[QuickTidal]

D, on 18 January 2022 - 04:10 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 17 January 2022 - 08:54 AM, said:

Bisque Doll immediately nosedived into sauciness in episode 2. Still enjoyable enough. Comes across that she's had a secret crush on him for a while. If you can power through the very obvious fanservice, manga readers say it's very rewarding and quite sweet later on.

Yeeeeaaaaaah heard that one before. Okay I'll admit it was a funny joke/scene in this episode even if it is a suuuuper cliche scenario, but boy oh boy it did not need to take 90% of the episode repeating the flustered measurement joke over and over and over again. The last joke with grandpa was pretty funny though, having him be totally serious instead of getting flustered again.

COMMENT-SURRECTION!

I grabbed volumes 12-15 of the Manga (which is the end of the story; and will form the 3rd season if that ever happens) when I was in Montreal this weekend, and I feel like it's safe to say that very little feels like the fan service of episode 2 of season 1 (the "bikini" fitting/measuring stuff) beyond it. Sure the show and manga return to play around it as it's part of the tension between Marin and Gojo...like there's a whole episode where they rent a room in a love hotel (accidentally) to do a cosplay shoot and the whole thing is played for awkward laughs. But what I feel is really special about this is story is not just how wholesome Marin and Gojo's romantic progression is, but the side characters filling out the wings all have depth and are interesting and progressive. There's a male (possibly trans/femboy?) character who dresses in female cosplay and comes to both Gojo and Marin for help..the latter for trying to look more like a woman. There's another couple of characters who are sisters, one of whom is heavy into cosplay and the other who feared getting into it and being overshadowed by her sister. There's a very interesting interplay between Marin and someone who she thinks is too far above her, and that person thinks Marin hates her (I think this is a play on how some girl groups gossip and how that gossip can pre-ruin relationships). There Is still fan service mind you, but it never really devolves. It serves to show how free-spirited Marin is, and how constrained Gojo is. There is also the element that Marin's family is non-existent. Her father travels for work and leaves her largely to her own devices where she eats crap/junk food every day (and I feel like the secondary layer to this is immersing herself to a ridiculous degree in anime/manga/video games as a replacement for any viable family/home life)...so Gojo and his grandfather take her in as a stray to feed real meals to and to feel like part of a family unit. There's a whole episode about how Marin is sick with a cold and Gojo just comes over and makes her food to feel better and spends time with her and it's so outside what she expected that she's completely overwhelmed...just showing us HOW much she needed a familial type connection. It's stuff like that which make this story so rewarding.

Anyways, I've not finished the manga yet, but I DO hope they finish the anime. it's one of the most unexpectedly wholesome romance stories I've come across that SEEMS on the surface like Gooner stuff but isn't remotely that. Writer/artist Shinichi Fukuda being a woman adds another dimension to it as well.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 08 June 2026 - 12:13 PM

[QuickTidal]

Finished the last 4 MDUD Manga volumes and they were good and satisfying...but they DID feel a tad rushed. Turns out that the Mangaka was perhaps having health issues and instead of letting it go on hiatus, chose to finish out the story (Which I appreciate), but there is a time jump mid-book. It was super wholesome overall and landed where I wanted it to land as a romance story. No real complaints. The art is still stunningly detailed. I have a feeling some pacing issues may be rearranged if they animate this portion.

There's a moment that really hit me in the Xmas Eve arc:

Spoiler

Grandpa tells Gojo about constantly seeking perfection, and never quite reaching it, but then eventually your body gives out and you start chasing normality and can't even keep up with that.

There is apparently a spinoff volume with a few side stories coming in October (called MDUD XOXO), so I'll get that.

I needed a new anime to check out in this mold, so I grabbed some recommendations (YOU AND I ARE POLAR OPPSOSITES is fun, but it's not hitting the same vibes for me) and landed on MORE THAN A MARRIED COUPLE, BUT NOT LOVERS by another female seinen Mangaka named Yūki Kanamaru, and it's DEFINITELY scratching the same itch...if a LITTLE spicier overall than MDUD, and the animation is bright and gorgeous. I'm only 2 eps in, but I'm liking it a lot.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 June 2026 - 11:40 AM

[Maark Abbott]

QuickTidal, on 08 June 2026 - 12:08 PM, said:

D, on 18 January 2022 - 04:10 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 17 January 2022 - 08:54 AM, said:

Bisque Doll immediately nosedived into sauciness in episode 2. Still enjoyable enough. Comes across that she's had a secret crush on him for a while. If you can power through the very obvious fanservice, manga readers say it's very rewarding and quite sweet later on.

Yeeeeaaaaaah heard that one before. Okay I'll admit it was a funny joke/scene in this episode even if it is a suuuuper cliche scenario, but boy oh boy it did not need to take 90% of the episode repeating the flustered measurement joke over and over and over again. The last joke with grandpa was pretty funny though, having him be totally serious instead of getting flustered again.

COMMENT-SURRECTION!

I grabbed volumes 12-15 of the Manga (which is the end of the story; and will form the 3rd season if that ever happens) when I was in Montreal this weekend, and I feel like it's safe to say that very little feels like the fan service of episode 2 of season 1 (the "bikini" fitting/measuring stuff) beyond it. Sure the show and manga return to play around it as it's part of the tension between Marin and Gojo...like there's a whole episode where they rent a room in a love hotel (accidentally) to do a cosplay shoot and the whole thing is played for awkward laughs. But what I feel is really special about this is story is not just how wholesome Marin and Gojo's romantic progression is, but the side characters filling out the wings all have depth and are interesting and progressive. There's a male (possibly trans/femboy?) character who dresses in female cosplay and comes to both Gojo and Marin for help..the latter for trying to look more like a woman. There's another couple of characters who are sisters, one of whom is heavy into cosplay and the other who feared getting into it and being overshadowed by her sister. There's a very interesting interplay between Marin and someone who she thinks is too far above her, and that person thinks Marin hates her (I think this is a play on how some girl groups gossip and how that gossip can pre-ruin relationships). There Is still fan service mind you, but it never really devolves. It serves to show how free-spirited Marin is, and how constrained Gojo is. There is also the element that Marin's family is non-existent. Her father travels for work and leaves her largely to her own devices where she eats crap/junk food every day (and I feel like the secondary layer to this is immersing herself to a ridiculous degree in anime/manga/video games as a replacement for any viable family/home life)...so Gojo and his grandfather take her in as a stray to feed real meals to and to feel like part of a family unit. There's a whole episode about how Marin is sick with a cold and Gojo just comes over and makes her food to feel better and spends time with her and it's so outside what she expected that she's completely overwhelmed...just showing us HOW much she needed a familial type connection. It's stuff like that which make this story so rewarding.

Anyways, I've not finished the manga yet, but I DO hope they finish the anime. it's one of the most unexpectedly wholesome romance stories I've come across that SEEMS on the surface like Gooner stuff but isn't remotely that. Writer/artist Shinichi Fukuda being a woman adds another dimension to it as well.

Yeah it's definitely wholesome, I get the feeling what was on the surface appearing as fanservice was maybe the author trying to show the difference in attitude between the characters, to almost put up a bit of a wall between their perspectives so she could tear it down later. Either way it keeps on with the wholesome, and from my experience with the cosplay circuits, it's accurate to the support between members of a group.

There's quite a lot of wholesome romance manga by female mangaka, one that had an anime I enjoyed last year was 'I Have a Crush at Work'.

[QuickTidal]

Maark Abbott, on 10 June 2026 - 07:41 AM, said:

There's quite a lot of wholesome romance manga by female mangaka, one that had an anime I enjoyed last year was 'I Have a Crush at Work'.

It's something I didn't even know I could explore as I didn't realize how many are out there in an industry so dominated by men, and I'm more than happy to do so.

I'll throw Crush on my list. I also found Saka Mikami's THE FRAGRANT FLOWER BLOOMS WITH DIGNITY which sounds good.

[QuickTidal]

About halfway through MORE THAN A MARRIED COUPLE, BUT NOT LOVERS and I like this as much as MDUD, it's hitting all the same notes and vibes, just with a tad more spiciness overall...but the wholesomeness buried in there is just as rewarding. The only problem I've run up against is that this only has the one season of anime (13eps) from 2022 and the creator on twitter said that there was no continuation of the anime in the offing currently (people have speculated that the manga isn't selling well enough to warrant it, or perhaps not enough viewings on CR?) so it's in limbo...that said, the manga is ongoing at 13 volumes and most of it is available on Mangadex....but if I finish out the season as pleased as I am now, I may pick up the English translated manga (2 so far, the 3rd releasing in July and the 4th in October), they are pricier as they are doubles ($25 VS the normal $15) but if I get on board while only 2 are released, then the hit to my Wallet happens less often.

Anyways, check it out if you're in the mood for romance anime on CR, so we can get more of the anime.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 15 June 2026 - 01:06 PM