Anime is semi-canceled right now, as a bunch of shows either have announced hiatuses or are probably going to announce hiatuses, but here's a seasonal roundup anyway.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

This one is incredibly good, and also the production wrapped up a few months ago so it is hiatus immune. It's set inside the world of a romance visual novel, and focuses on a villainess who hit her head and suddenly remembered a previous life where she played the game and that all the routes ended with her doom, and she has to figure out how to get the least bad ending for herself. If that doesn't make any sense don't worry the show does a better job of making it make sense Lol.

The premise works thanks to intricate plotting where complications naturally unfold into bigger and bigger problems, and just heaps of sweatiness. And the main character is a delight, incredibly likable yet also its extremely easy so see how she could be painted as a villain. I'm really hype for this one.

Gal & Dino

It's about a woman who ends up being roommates with a blue cartoon dinosaur, who mostly just lays around her house. The Dino only communicates through funny faces. The gal is a gyaru and I don't know how to explain what that is but she's cool. It has a leisurely pace, and the jokes mostly involve gradually increasing tension before a punchline that's like "well actually everything is okay". It's kinda sweet.

It's a manga adaptation by the same people who did Pop Team Epic, so when it's not actually adapting the manga it's doing a side segments in different styles and meta jokes. Their big gimmick is splitting the episodes into a animated first half and a back half that's live action, and the live action bits aren't really funny in and of themselves but are like, conceptually involved? There's references to Pop Team? I don't totally get them but whatever this puppy doesn't worry or fret.

I'm not sure yet if I like BNA: Brave New Animal yet but I'm glad I stuck past the first episode cause it started to get interesting. Wave, Listen to Me! is a show about listening to a drunk woman complain and trying to find the plot. The shifts from wildly improbable comedy to low-key drama give me whiplash and it doesn't help that I don't buy the premise. But... I want it to be good, and the character animation owns, so I'm still watching despite a weird gay panic sequence. Sing "Yesterday" For Me is a well made adaptation of a smart manga about a loser dude finding himself, and like, a crow girl. And the season two of Kaguya-sama: Love is War still rules.

Thank you for reading!