Urasekai Picnic: I thought this was an isekai genre, but it's actually a horror genre. I hate the horror genre, basically because it's completely alien to the human condition. In the real world you're given a safe shelter by society and family to cultivate your talents and strengths. Only once you're capable of handling the little problems that face you in the world are you asked to tackle them yourself, none of which involve violence. This gives everyone control over their own lives and their own fates. Heck, this is true not only of humans, but most animals. Even birds feed and protect their children. But for humans in the modern world especially, where life expectancy is 78 years, there's zero risk of sudden, brutal, or gory death. You can take your time and be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want to do.
I don't consider it a human existence to be constantly running or fearing for your life, with all sorts of supernatural, unpreventable, unfightable horrors hunting you down. That's far worse than any life on Earth. Even deer get to fight for their lives when hunted by wolves. So what kind of emotion is the horror genre trying to tap into? Insanity and neurosis. It's trying to drive you insane via helpless despair. Why would you welcome a dark force like that into your own psyche? It's poison.
I like hopeful stories that reflect the best aspects of the human condition: people with bold ambitions working hard under the loving tutelage of many well-wishers and achieving their dreams. Now, obviously, not everyone can become an astronaut or whatever. But most people can work hard towards an achievable goal and achieve it, and most people will be helped and cheered along the way when they try to do something like that. This is how we all attain our happiness, whether it's astronaut or simply a minimum wage job or a successful piano recital.
It's a striking comparison to watch Uma Musume S2's first episode right before this episode. In one you see a beloved, hard-working horsegirl succeed and celebrate, while in the next you see vague white and black apparitions dangle the lives of helpless girls by threads over and over again, where whether you live or die in the next instant is determined by undefinable, unknowable rules. Uma Musume will likely be the next great anime to emerge in my rankings -- Urasekai Picnic I quit halfway through. Fail.
This is Uma Musume's 2nd season. I didn't think the first season did enough to deserve a ranking, but with double the amount of eps? That's another story. So long as they're as good as this episode was, it's a sure thing. And I know, Teio's life isn't all sunshine and rainbows, it looks like she hurt her ankle and it's unlikely she'll win the triple crown now. But that's not the point. I'm not saying good anime requires everything go well for the protagonist and everything should be easy. I'm saying that the risks need to be something understood ahead of time and willingly chosen to be engaged with. The story must be due to the agency of the characters. It must be their story, the one they chose to embark upon. Teio knew her dream wouldn't be easy and it might not become true. But it's her dream and she can at least go as far down the path as her strength can take her. She isn't buffeted around by the whims of fate and required to do whatever it takes to stay alive for the next five seconds by her enemy's motions. She's a proud and empowered woman.
Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae: I've read the manga for this series and I like it, but I have to admit re-using the same joke over and over again forever isn't that inspiring by the end. The guy is stronger than he thinks. I get it. Turning that running gag into an entire series though? I dunno. Well, I can at least watch as far as I've read the manga. Pass.
Gekidol: Another idol show, this time combined with stage acting. Of course, Nijigasaki already had a stage actor-idol, which was really cool, so this is already old news. I'm a sucker for idol shows and the girls are cute so whatever, but I don't expect anything special from this. Pass.
Hortensia Saga: What does this series offer that hasn't already been done before? A crossdressing princess? Who somehow isn't discovered despite how blaringly obvious it is? Didn't Zelda already do this as Shierke? How about you put some effort into creating your fantasy world before throwing it into chaos? Give some background and life and individuality to the characters? Fail.
Soukou Musume: I barely managed to get to the halfway point of this episode. It's too childish, too toy-oriented, too utterly vapid and ridiculous. How many times will weird, uncommunicative aliens invade the Earth and require girls in ridiculous outfits to fight them off? How many series are going to be based on this dumb 'plot'? Fail.
Tenchi Souzou Desain-bu: Intelligent Design is a dumb idea. It's like assuming a physical principle or force behind every motion of every object instead of one underlying law of nature that determines all motions equally (the laws of physics). The endless complexity it would require to design each and every species that ever existed is unimaginably inefficient. Meanwhile, the law of evolution and survival of the fittest elegantly explains all species with one easy trick. You design the simplest lifeform imaginable, an RNA strand or whatever, and from there on all varieties of life emerge naturally and on their own initiative. Whatever ingenious adaptions life forms have don't need to be thought up by an original creator, they emerge spontaneously, so you don't need to come up with every crazy cool idea nature has ever found. Any God would rely on evolution instead of intelligent design, given the choice, and nature makes it clear that we did in fact evolve, because there's lots of commonalities between the species that evolution explains but intelligent design would have no use for. There are also plenty of useless or negative adaptions which the spontaneity of evolution explains but intelligent design would make no sense under.
In short I don't approve of this series because it teaches kids the wrong thing. This isn't how animal life emerged in the world. This isn't how God would operate even if there were a God. "What's the harm in a joke?" One could ask, but the harm is in the very premise of the series -- that it makes any sense or would work in any way for people to intelligently design each life form separately from all previous life forms and be able to predict how the incredibly intricate adaptions of each life form would manage in the dynamic and competitive ecosystem. The series makes no sense, so it's aggravating to watch, so it's no good even as a joke. Fail.
Jaku-chara Tomozaki-kun: This feels a lot like Oregairu. A guy who is an introvert and only good at games is taught how to be popular and get along in society by a girl classmate. I don't like this plot, it assumes nurture is more important than nature when it isn't. Nature is everything. There are people born and destined to be popular, and people born and destined not to be. Your personality is hereditary just like your athletic and intellectual prowess is. If you luck out and get the right genes then you can effortlessly do what you want to do, and every time that will lead to you being more liked and respected. For instance, if you like sports and are good at them due to natural inborn talent, then it's effortless to work hard and succeed at them, which will effortlessly make girls like you. Likewise, if you like studying and working hard you can effortlessly become a doctor or a lawyer and get girls to like you that way. And if you effortlessly like to do good in the world and help others you can become some respected charitable busybody somewhere and get girls to like you that way. And so on. But it all has to be something you want to do ahead of time, so that you can keep grinding away at it forever. Because anything painful to do can't be endured long enough to compete with the people who enjoy doing it. You'll never beat them at their own game. They will literally devote every waking hour to whatever it is they enjoy working at. My advice to everyone is to only do things they like to do. If that leads to popularity, great, now you get riches, fame, women and kids too. But even if it doesn't lead to anything, at least you're spending your entire life doing something you actually enjoy doing. That's worth more than all the rest combined.
Plus I suspect any woman who would like you for being a fireman or a lawyer or whatever will quickly grow tired of you once she realizes it's all a front and you actually hate your job and your life and your coworkers etc. What's the point of pretending? How long can you keep the mask on, and how hollow are the gains when it's all based on an easily exposed lie that could fall apart at any moment?
If you want to be successful at life go get a graduate degree and work at a big firm, then attend a bunch of parties with coworkers and college alumni, go to church, network the hell out of everything, choose a girl to court from amidst that crowd and flash all your proven credentials. It generally works. People with those degrees and careers tend to find prospects. But there's a certain breed of man who can actually do these things and not hate their life, and this path is only meant for that sort of person. I don't even know if a faker can succeed at it, but I do know the pain isn't worth the gain.
Tomozaki especially has no realistic prospect of becoming popular or getting a girlfriend. In Japan romance is a vanishing prospect, most boys are still virgins throughout high school and nowadays even college. Japanese women are less and less interested in sex, and when they are interested they'll of course choose high-status established men with incomes and careers and degrees over unproven children. What chance does a boy have in a world like that? It's already established that he isn't a sports star or some sort of charismatic figure that girls might naturally be attracted to. So any realistic route to getting laid in high school is already out. It's unrealistic that this show will show Tomozaki changing this or that superficial thing about himself and manage to get a girl. It's not like he can change his education level or income level, so why would any girl like him? He can't offer them anything. Girls aren't so flippant that a haircut can change their evaluation of you. They aren't centered on looks to begin with. In the real world every effort he makes is doomed to failure, but in the story a bunch of lies will be perpetuated and he'll magically succeed at life. I don't want to engage with a farce. Fail.
Kumo Desu ga, nani ka?: Like Slime Tensei, this is a story about reincarnating into a weak monster instead of a cheat human, only eventually the weak monster turns out to be a cheat anyway. I expect the story will be around as good as Slime Tensei, which is to say good but not great. When you take a really generic concept and throw in a silly gimmick, you don't actually improve upon the formula. The original idea, ala Death March, will always be superior. Pass.
Back Arrow: This is by the maker of Code Geass, but it actually reminded me a lot more of Gurren Lagann. The first ep of Gurren was also largely comedic and over the top. That doesn't mean it will stay that way. I have high hopes for this series, but if it wants to stay a comedy with hot girls that works too. Pass.
Ore Dake Haireru Dungeon: This is practically a hentai, but heck, not all hentai are bad. This show, like To Love ru, also remembers to have a good sense of humor. Plus the battle mechanics aren't bad either. Pass.
That's enough for part 1. The remaining new series can be covered in a part 2 or part 3. The winter season is already bustling and it's going to get a lot bigger than this.
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