☀️

• horimiya - an imperfect 10/10: oh. my god. my god. oh my god. the combination of the bafflingly efficient pacing (which, notably, is only possible through the amazing chemistry between characters crafted by the writers + animators + VAs) and a soundtrack that i am downright obsessed with, i struggle to see it as anything less than a masterpiece. also you just know that it was originally written by a woman when the masochism arc makes perfect sense for the very normal character (and also still manages to feel just as warm-blanket-y as the rest of the show)
• my dress-up darling - a resounding 5/10 why the fuck are they fifteen 😒 anyways as someone who wants to get into cosplay but is unequivocally hopeless when it comes to both fashion and arts and crafts the low-key encyclopedic nature was a great balance of learning experience and reality check.
• my love story with yamada-kun at level 999 - a sleepy 4/10: it's just boring. please, please, just take the time to get over yourself before you start pining after the emotionally distant gamer boy
• rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai - a conditional 7/10: got a little bit of whiplash from how much they bounced back and forth between graphic descriptions of outer wilds mechanics and moderately horny banter. also the character distribution started to feel a little too harem-y as new characters kept getting introduced. despite all that, the character arcs themselves were pretty solid! i just feel like the sci-fi could've been done away with for a far more normal slice of life
• skip and loafer - a perfect 8/10 i would die for nao-chan i would die for nao-chan i would die for nao-chan. such a shockingly positive portrayal of transness without hand-waving the realities of it all, largely thanks to the fact that she is positively thriving in her thirties. also everything else is great but who gives a shit when i would die for nao-chan. seriously though, watch the anime, continue with the manga (later chapters bump it to a 9 btw), and fade out of reality from all of the good vibes.
• rent-a-girlfriend - an infuriating 1/10: realized after nine episodes (nine too many) that the fantasies of homicide growing inside of me were shockingly similar to the ones i used to get browsing a transphobic dogpile on twitter. if i were to put this on the good/bad/ugly scale i'd call it body horror. quit while i was ahead
• kaguya-sama: love is war - a smug 9/10: chika-chan is fucking goated character writing. you'd think placing a coy pseudo-bimbo in a room with what is essentially just L and Light (based on a friend's description of their various homoerotic moments) would render her entirely inept in the narrative design. and to that i say NUH UH! this bitch has agency, and that agency is the glue that holds kaguya and miyuki's season 1 dynamic together. going from rent-a-girlfriend to this was like taking a bite out of a whole lemon like it’s an apple and then instantly devouring a Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Sea Salted Caramel Square. Anyways I still have to get through most of season 3 but at its current stage the bag here seems difficult to fumble.

P.S. crunchyroll commenters suck ass. wakana is not "a guy with no charisma rolling a nat 20" he's a skilled and passionate artist giving a piggyback ride to Marin the Hopeless. And Mami Rentagirlfriend is literally Skylar White for weebs--yeah sure what she's doing is frustrating but mr fucking main character over here is constantly being forgiven by chizuru for WAY WORSE

I've already seen so much positivity toward Skip + Loafer and this post pushed me over the edge last night to finally get to starting it! I'm really enjoying it so far! It's nice watching some high school SoL that deals with common teenage nastiness without being overly contrived or melodramatic. It has such a lovable cast too!

And I'm 100% so happy with Nao. It's so nice having a trans character who is neither used just as sexual or comedic material, that addresses the very real problems trans folks face without also milking that for tragic melodrama.