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If you haven't already heard, the strengths and weaknesses of this franchise has finally started to become more apparent to the general public... and the copium/mental gymnastics of the fandom as well.

Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken/That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime season 3 has received scrutiny as for the first 11 episodes were nearly entirely done in a single room where the cast simply sat around and discussed current events and what to do next. Not only that, but weirdly enough, the art and animation were somehow noticeably poor during these 11 episodes as it honestly felt like a slideshow (which to be ... fair, they are just sitting around and talking).

However, after episode 12, the anime suddenly feels like it was picked up by another anime studio as more life and movement starts to fill the screen. As if it was an actual anime. The 2nd half of the season then shifts to its main draw: which is the slice-of-life. Where Rimuru continues advertising his nation with a bunch of entertainment venues with a big focus on a battle coliseum and a 'dungeon crawl' where teams of adventurers may attempt to go through, kill mobs, challenge bosses, and obtain loot.

To clarify, the weakness of this series ISN'T because of the long, drawn-out meetings. It's actually the things discussed in these meetings. For some reason this series has been constantly trying to convince the readers that this is a 'serious' world and push "national" and "political" consequences onto Rimuru and his nation due to his sudden arrival and strategically-valuable location. Rimuru & friends will then discuss on how to proceed should these other nations start to impose themselves on them.

However, this is still a POWER FANTASY isekai. Whenever trouble finally arrives for Rimuru & friends, they simply resolve any problems through brute-force anyway and then get the most out of the situation later while still being the "nice guys" in any political maneuvering. It's essentially a running-gag in the anime, manga, and light novel. A few troublemakers show up, Rimuru's subordinates show off, then the troublemakers quickly cower and behave themselves.

Just so you know, Season 3 is nearly caught up with the manga, at least up until Chapter 118. So with the end of this season, a 4th season and even another movie was announced. The show will quickly surpass the manga very soon.

I have very mixed feelings about this season and the series going forward. The first 11 episodes will be painfully slow and will only get worse on rewatches as I imagine it will often be skipped over and when you get to the slice-of-life content it starts to get stale as you already know how Rimuru & friends will just clown everyone who challenges them. Essentially, if you're already a big fan, you'll probably watch this no matter what. If you're not, I don't think this season will change your mind.

Well, well, well... Look who ended up being right after all? 😏

If you liked anything about Fairy Tail or Rave Master or just shounen/ecchi in general. You'll like Eden's Zero but don't expect it to be much different than Fairy Tail outside of the Sci-Fi setting and more ecchi scenes.

- Many characters have reused designs, hairstyles, and faces from Mashima's previous works, even the names of Factions and characters are reused
- Many characters have very similar personalities to Mashima's previous work
- It absolutely have the same fanservice/humor as Fairy Tail (It's even more fetish-y and ecchi than before!)
- It has that post-timeskip pacing that Fairy ... Tail had and you will be blitzing through many locations up within a handful of chapters. Many fights & problems also start and end within a chapter and multiple fights often have most of their fights happen off-screen.
- Shiki (The main character) has the nearly the exact same personality and design of Natsu of Fairy Tail. Even down to his obsession with making friends and friendships.
- It's a little "dark" and I mention this in quotations because it's still on Shounen Jump but it really pushes into ecchi territory even more so than Fairy Tail. Mashima's fetish/fanservice scenes are on full-display here. A lot of frontal cleavage and revealing clothing, partial nudity, several implied mentions of prostitution and a few implied rapes (again, sci-fi urban setting), and quite a few despair faces on the females.

To reiterate again, massive amounts of pacing issues (too fast-paced) where there were so many fights that starts on-screen, continues mostly off-screen, and then ends the next time it appears. Several "big" and "important" fights were also often handled within 2 chapters. Didn't feel very creative at all, mainly it was nonsensical-asspulls and 'getting more emotional = getting stronger' kind of big attacks.

Time travel was always going to be both a crutch and a convenient plot device especially when they introduced "Universe 0", the origin point where all time converges and all universes and worlds stem from. Which the author just completely drops the ball in terms of stakes and tension. The ending was pretty bad and not in a meme-able way like some other endings out there...

Unlike Fairy Tail, Eden's Zero is likely to be forgotten by most of the anime/manga community but it's not so bad that it wouldn't spring up from time to time. I think it will be one of those anime/manga that resurges almost like a cult classic.

This is a one-shot with only 8 pages.

This one-shot is about an Elven Knight Commander who is prim and proper in public but a lazy, spoiled, overly-cutesy, woman-child person in private. Especially around her caretaker who also happens to be a reincarnated person from another world (not sure why he needed to be but it was thrown in there).

So I still recommend it because it's a super short and easily digested story. It's the kind of low-effort cutesy light-hearted story you already know how it plays out and what kind of tropes and running gags that will happen. Not much else to say about it.

Will ... I read it if it actually gets picked up as a manga? Probably.

I am unexpectedly really invested in this.

I thought it was just another slave-fantasy ecchi that also happens to be an isekai but it's surprisingly endearing with a lot of action with "cute" and "silly" moments.

Kouji Mikagami, the usual "rarely-loses" gamer, is summoned from his world by an antagonist looking for someone with high-tier skills. Mikagami's skill is "Copy Skill" which is considered worthless due to it only temporarily copying his opponent's skills at half-strength and thus he is sold into slavery freely into a Slave Coliseum where he fights for his life as the loser becomes a slave for the winner and is "bred".

The main ... draw of this manga is not only the ecchi situations and lewd designs of the women but also Mikagami's creativity in how he pulls victory from seemingly impossible battles. Then afterwards, almost like Rance (a Eroge protagonist), he basically bangs his usually sadistic opponents into playful submission where they then become his doting companions.

Believe it or not, there's much more action and silliness then there are lewd/ecchi scenes. If you're able to look past the initial cover art designs and artstyle, I genuinely recommend giving this a shot.

WARNING! This spin-off follows the Light Novel and is much further ahead of the manga and anime. So if you don't want certain elements to be spoiled. Steer clear.

As of April 22, 2024, this spin-off has been officially discontinued due to the author's health. It was on hiatus for 3 years before this for the same reason but now it's officially confirmed to be discontinued.

This story follows a female rabbit-beastmen whose unique skill allows her to analyze things with much detail. This ability interests Rimuru who wants her to make a guidebook on the city/nation of Tempest.

So much like the Slime Diaries spin-off, this is ... a slice-of-life style story following the shenanigans of many known characters of the series. It is very entertaining if you wish for more shenanigans of the side characters. However, timeline-wise, this story jumps around a bit where it mentions plot points that already happened and shows characters that were introduced via Light Novel and will not cover it in the spin-off itself.

Again, if you don't mind spoilers or already know the gist of what's going to happen in the manga/anime, then it's worth a read.

Shokugeki no Soma was a nice, slow-burn, tastefully-ecchi, fun, & wholesome manga about cooking food so good that it metaphorically (at first) made your clothes explode off you in ecstasy. It even started the trend of the word "Foodgasm". However after a certain point (when Erina's father shows up), it completely devolves into a subpar cooking-battle shounen that sacrifices everything that made it great.

For the record, I was reading this weekly as it published so it was more painful for me compared to those who binged it.

Starts off with Soma, the protagonist who specialized in family dining, who desired to surpass his father in cooking ... when the latter made him go to the cooking academy that he used to go to. There, he realized how small his world was and was introduced to several rivals and friends that made up the numerous side-characters each with their own typical personality quirks and tropes.

These minor/side characters each had their own stories that helped build up each arc and competition. The usual stuff you'd experience in a sports manga and the like. They were all fantastic, each progressing and moving up in their own way. Some of these side characters were arguably more popular than some of the main cast... *wink*

The story also introduces very clear goals to Soma such as the cooking academy had their own Elite 10 students who were ranked the best in the school and he quickly sets a goal in an attempt to challenge each one for their seat. There were teachers/instructors that his Dad once considered rivals and colleagues, and that there was even a international tournament for cooking that his Dad never even participated in.

However, as soon as Erina's Father comes into the picture, the entire story shifted. Erina's father usurped the principal's position at the academy and started turning into a "Food Nazi". The plot and arcs became "serious" with "high stakes", competitions fell into standard tropes, side characters get completely ditched and forgotten, several goals and expectations that was expected to be slowly built-up was instead rushed towards. It was a mess that the author just kept hurdling towards with no way out back into the slow-burn fun that was Shokugeki no Soma.

The only upside to this large spanning multi-arc is the MASSIVE focus and development for Erina (the main heroine) who is heavily involved throughout the entire thing but at the cost of everything else. For example, the goal to challenge the Elite 10 for their seats? Completely rushed, skipping all the work to even challenge them in the first place as the Elite 10 serve as Erina's Father's main supporters. All those amazing side characters? All fodder for the Elite 10 and just end up being part of the peanut gallery cheering on the main cast. The original goal of Soma finally defeating his Dad? Oh boy. That one is even worse...

So in the last arc of the manga, there's a small timeskip. Soma's Dad is defeated by a mysterious boy (teen) and Soma and friends are shown to be part of the Elite 10 while they are getting ready to participate in the international cooking tournament. This mysterious boy shows up in school, clowns Soma, flirts with Erina, and declares them to be a couple. It's revealed that he is an "underground cook" (people who cook for criminals and real tough/scary customers or whatever) who was taught by Soma's Dad, has the ability to copy and combine other chef's specialties when he holds their tools (Yes, really.), and to top that all off... it's also revealed that he's Erina's HALF-BROTHER from her Mother's side! Let's just say the author is really just cramming it all in there in the last arc. Especially that epilogue which felt like more of a slap to the face of fans rather than tying up loose ends or confirming things.

Enough about the downhill trainwreck of the plot, some minor notes: Nearing the end of arc with finally taking down Erina's Father. the art was very noticeably starting to suffer outside of the big close-up pages or the big 2-page reveals. The author supposedly was feeling down a lot. The anime after season 1 suffered a budget issue which also affected production as each season afterwards were around 10 episodes with tons of slideshow-esque scenes. Manga readers were very sad that we never got back to the slow-burn built up to each challenge/competition. It was pretty devastating to see how a great fun read turned into such a mess.

I put this as "Mixed Feelings" as it's still a fun read up until Erina's Dad shows up but after that it turns into a different type of story. So don't say you were never warned!

Like all the previous "Memories" episodes for this series, all this is is a recap episode but with Luminus/Luminous narrating the events this time.

That's it. It's just a recap episode. Same scenes from the anime, same backstories that has already been explained. You're not missing out on anything that you wouldn't already get from just watching the show.

Normally I'd just recommend watching the series again (at least up until episode 11 which is where this recap ends) if you want a refresher but this season has a lot of drawn-out meetings for about 1/3rd of its run so... maybe this might be useful for you?

For clarity, I used to be a fan of Death Note. Not a big fan but a regular one: read the manga, watched the anime, watched the live-action movie. However, I remember very little from the original Death Note.

A quick summary about this: Ryuk, the Death God/Shinigami that helped the original protagonist: Light, continues to seek out his new "Kira" (the alias used by the original protagonist) for fun. Ryuk meets with Minoru (the current progonist) and he comes up with a different scheme in how to use the Death Note.

So basically it's a "modern interpretation" of how Death Note would play out in modern ... times. They mentioned how Light's old tricks and plans would not work in today's world due to cameras being a lot more prevalent and cybersecurity being more prominent. So Minoru decides to not be the next "Kira" and does something else with the Death Note.

It's a very entertaining story about how "Death Note would play out in modern times", I thoroughly enjoyed it. Almost makes me want another supernatural drama mystery to jump into.

It's a one-shot, very little investment to go through. Just read it and it's one and done. I recommend giving it a shot.

This takes place between Season 1 & Season 2.

A 3-episode "arc" where Rimuru tries to resolve a dispute within a kingdom but uncovers a conspiracy. Sound familiar? (Scarlet Bond movie)

So it's no secret that Fuze (the author) have been making spin-offs left and right to milk the popularity of the series as much as possible as he's nearing the end of the Light Novel. This is one of those.

Story-wise, it's been done before within the series, even down to the tropes and lack of stakes or tension. Honestly, it's just something they put out to tide people over till the next season's release and to ... give an "early" look at Luminous and Violet for fanservice reasons.

Are you missing out on anything important by not watching this? No, but you still might enjoy this if you're one of those people who would consume anything regarding this series.

A girl who returns to a certain point in time every time she dies, who then uses her previous knowledge to try different paths in life until her 7th "time loop" where she's engaged to her "worst enemy"

It's a pretty straightforward Otome/Shoujo. I've heard some people also call it a "villainess" anime for some reason but they're obviously wrong.

Personally, the premise was interesting but as the anime went on, it became very formulaic and obvious with what tropes they were going for and I began to lose interest by the end.

As is standard in a lot of these Otome shows, the female lead has the ... "kill them with kindness" personality and the main male love interest is a "dark but ultimately thoughtful" guy who is head-over-heels infatuated with the female lead.

The female lead uses her knowledge in her previous loops to gather the people she interacted with in the past under her wing as she wants to either improve their lot in life, benefit from their eventual success, or prevent tragedy from happening. However since she already knew the personal details of the people she's trying to help and already knew several life skills, it comes off as "just another power fantasy" anime. She doesn't really struggle with anything and the majority of plot has already been handled off-screen as she planned ahead of time due to her prior knowledge.

Again, it's a very standard cute-ish Otome/Shoujo anime with pretty art/animation but if you're looking for any emotional investment or any suspenseful conflict, this is not the anime for you.