Re:CREATORS – I’ve had this series on my watchlist for years, but for some reason I just kept putting off watching it until I saw somebody on Twitter say that it was leaving Prime Video at the end of March. I don’t know what took me so long, because a show like this is absolutely my kind of food. It had some really cool story ideas centered on the characters of video games, light novels, and manga being pulled into the real world, where they could track down their creators and give them an earful about all the nonsense they’d been put through. The idea of story characters having beef with their writers absolutely tickled me, and the way they had to fight the main antagonist through a multimedia crossover story project had some great moments when the writers got philosophical about their craft. The soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano was exactly what you could expect from him, and while he is sort of a one-trick pony and his music basically always sounds the same, I really like that pony, and it hits for me every time. The character designs are unique and distinctive, the animation was great when it needed to be, and the voice cast did a great job bringing all these different character types to life. My only complaint is that the final battle against the antagonist was hugely anticlimactic in the end. Everything leading up to it was so exciting that it was disappointing to go out on a whimper. 7/10
Slayers Try – The third season of Slayers has our four heroes about to head out on a journey to explore the world beyond the magical barrier that had, until recently, surrounded their home kingdoms when they run into a dragon that drags them into an affair tied up in an apocalyptic prophecy. The season was structured a little oddly, as it was sort of split in two, with a handful of more humorous episodes between the two halves that focused on the looming threat. It introduced a new faction into the series lore that made things kind of interesting, and brought back the enigma Xellos from last season, who continues to obscure his actual motives or loyalties, and whether he’s friend or foe. The animation seemed notably worse than the previous seasons, with several scenes where the characters would be talking to each other with the images remaining static. The adventure was exciting enough, and the final battle was grand enough, though, that it was still a solidly fun ride. 7/10
The Romantic Goldfish 