Now that we’re around the halfway mark for the season, with most shows having recently aired either their fifth or sixth episode, let’s check in to see how they’ve been faring since their respective premieres.

Lupin III: Part V
Original Score: 7/10
Current Score: 7/10

The most recent episode (six) aside, which I assume was intended as a breather between story arcs (and which for some reason went all the way back to mid-80s Pink Jacket Lupin), Part V has managed to be consistently smart and entertaining, both in terms of plot and presentation. I wouldn’t call the Lupin franchise in general particularly deep or even particularly clever, but I also don’t think it strives to be either, aiming instead for style and pure, rollicking fun. It’s difficult to say whether Part V will be able to keep the entertainment factor up, as much will depend on what the following stories will be about, but I’d say the show has already been more focused and therefore more consistent than Part IV was – as well as being a nice nod to the world’s own current focus on mass media, mass communication, and the kind of user-generated technology that freely allows both.

Amanchu! Advance
Original Score: 8/10
Current Score: 7/10

The second season of Amanchu! has likewise been fairly consistent, although I’m not so certain that the introduction of Kokoro has been lending anything much to the series. While I do like that the show has been touching on Teko’s emotional independence, and that Pikari’s budding friendship with Kokoro has not led to a bout of irrational jealousy, I don’t think Kokoro herself adds a whole lot of value to the proceedings. I’d rather focus more on Ai, Mokoto, or Mato-sensei, all of whom have been getting little in the way of screentime as it is – not to mention the introduction of Pikari’s younger sister, Kodama, who does add something extremely potentially interesting to the family dynamic. That said, Amanchu! is still a lovely, peaceful little show I’m always happy to watch, and I doubt that will change.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
Original Score: 6/10
Current Score: 6/10

I’m convinced that if Gun Gale Online didn’t have the specter of the original SAO hanging over it, it would be a much more popular title. Not because it’s anything great, mind you – at best, it’s nothing more than decent, and at worst it still suffers from some of the lesser sins that the vast majority of light novel adaptations tend to commit; dawn out and awkwardly delivered exposition, lackluster writing in general between action scenes, incredibly obvious foreshadowing. However, I also don’t actually think Gun Gale Online is a bad show, and if I cared anything about guns, I might even be tempted to give it a higher rating still. I dig that Gun Gale Online explicitly acknowledges that generally speaking, the players likely know little about guns or shooting in real life, and that the skills they gain in-game would have no impact on their ability to accurately shoot with a real gun. I also think the action scenes are perfectly fine, and that so far at least, the show has shown a lot more focus than most other titles of its ilk. In short, this series is still surprisingly okay, so I guess I’m here for the long haul.

Piano no Mori/Piano Forest
Original Score: 6/10
Current Score: 6/10 (Dropped)

Well, I made it three episodes before dropping out when things got weird – something about stage fright, a girl locking herself in a bathroom stall, and some self-therapy involving petting the main character’s head like her pet dog. It’s honestly a lot less creepy than I probably made that sound, but was also still pretty damn strange. I admit I wasn’t exactly enthralled with the series prior to this moment either. There was plenty about Piano no Mori that I liked, but it was all being constantly undermined by the often hilariously dramatic delivery and the terribad CG, so I was honestly almost relieved when I was given a more concrete excuse to move on.

Golden Kamuy
Original Score: 7/10
Current Score: 7/10

Once again I seem to be in the minority here, thoroughly enjoying Golden Kamuy when a lot of other viewers gave up after the first episode (which, incidentally, I also enjoyed). See, while Golden Kamuy is billed as an adult action/adventure piece, I tend to view it at least half the time as a comedy. Sure, it has a bunch of murderous villains inflicting R-rated violence on everyone else, but at its heart I view the series as two things. First, a wilderness survivalist piece of historical fiction, which paints in great detail exactly how Asirpa and her people, as Ainu living completely apart from the rest of society, manage to live contentedly even in the middle of Hokkaido winter, as well as imparting fairly accurate details about their culture and way of life. Second, a comedy involving some of the best reaction shots and derp-faces I’ve seen in a while, especially given that Sugimoto obviously has a decent sense of humor and isn’t actually inclined to be all that serious when someone’s not trying to kill him for a change. Honestly, I find all of this pretty refreshing, and while certainly an odd combination, it’s not inherently a bad one.

Fumikiri Jikan
Original Score: 7/10
Current Score: 5/10 (Dropped)

I’m not sorely disappointed, as that would imply I had high hopes for this in the first place, but I am somewhat saddened by the fact that Fumikiri Jikan turned out to be a purely episodic series, with no main or even recurring characters beyond whoever’s introduced every week. It’s not that I have anything against this kind of format, which can work especially well for shorts, but the show was so much more interesting when I thought it was about an ongoing and genuine potential romantic relationship between two young women. The rest of the show (well, up to episode four when I dropped it anyway) was fine, but lacked the charm of that first episode, along with anything consistent in the comedy department. Oh well, at least those initial three minutes were good.

Hisone to Maso-tan/Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Maso-tan
Original Score: 8/10
Current Score: 8/10

I feel really bad that viewers can’t yet legally watch this unless they live in Japan, because it’s still easily the best anime of the season. Bones is really outdoing themselves with the art style and animation here – it’s not only charming but also unique and impactful, and definitely suits the style of storytelling being used along with the characters themselves. Speaking of, I can’t even think of the last time I’ve been introduced to a main cast of this size and immediately liked each and every member, flaws and all. This goes doubly so for Amakasu, who’s just so personable and direct that I can’t help but love her – especially given how rare that combination is in any anime female lead, let alone in a military drama/comedy. My only major reservation at this point is how deeply sexist the men tend to be in this show… which, given that all the main characters are women tasked with piloting dragons and potentially defending Japan itself someday, might be the point. For whatever reason, the men simply aren’t capable of this, yet are constantly either trying to get their counterparts in bed or demeaning them by loudly discussing their supposedly overwrought emotional state. Sometimes both in the same sentence. I’m hoping the series actually ends up going somewhere with this, as opposed to just letting the guys get away with it and having the whole thing pass as a kind of wry social commentary on women in the military.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii/WotaKoi: Love is Hard for Otaku
Original Score: 6/10
Current Score: 6/10

At this point, Hirotaka is basically carrying the entire series on his shoulders. The rest of the gang are amusing enough with their otaku hijinks (even if Hanako and Kabakura’s relationship is hardly the pinnacle of a healthy romance, and Narumi hardly the pinnacle of a decent human being), but Hirotaka is just so smooth that I feel compelled to continue watching anyway. It definitely helps that the series is so light-hearted and doesn’t seem much interested in saying anything deep or meaningful about any of the characters, or how their hobbies and work lives intersect; if it were otherwise, the characters just wouldn’t work with the story. As nothing more than a relatively shallow yet lively romcom though, I don’t feel that I need anything other than twenty minutes of relaxed entertainment each week. As such, I think Wotakoi does an above average job.

Question of the post: Now that we’ve reached this anime season’s halfway point, are there any titles you’ve changed your mind about since the premiere?