It's yet another micro spin-off of some random anime. At first, I thought I was watching IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Theater (with indistinguishable girls), but it's actually based on some 2020 show with 3D CG models for the girls and three DJ music sessions in the first episode. I dropped the parent show. Definitely dropping this.

The actual mini-sode I saw was moderately amusing, though, and struck me as more watchable than what I saw of the parent show. One of the girls thinks all the others are hot/adorable, even if they drop on her blackboard erasers, buckets of water and live snakes.

The title sequence makes the show look cool. I was quite keen to watch the show.

The actual episode, though, has CGI animation, a main character who does kickboxing and some reason for why our high school heroes have to fight mysterious things that appear because FIGHT!!! There are some surreal giant hand mouth monsters that appear in... uh, a dream. Someone cares about who's Number 1 in an online game ranking.

The show looks pretty good, if you like CGI. The heroes' job is to fight monsters. Naaah.

A plague called Randolph Syndrome is sweeping the world in a somewhat COVID-like manner. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, a huge underground world called Asylum has appeared and our heroes' job is to go down in there. Maybe they'll find amazing treasures? Or maybe they'll just get killed by monsters? (Hint: the latter is more likely.)

A high death rate is taken for granted. "Whether he survives or not is up to him. Not you."

Similarly, when heroes get killed, their commander's cold reaction is, "Oh, my. You don't need to let me have all the glory, guys." (He's talking about he glory of killing the monster, which he duly does.)

The hero's fairly bland, I've seen criticism of the episode's animation and I think this was an unpopular show. Googling suggests that it didn't get much fan attention. I'm reasonably interested by the world and its uncomfortable characterisation, though. I'll probably regret saying this, but I'll keep watching.

I watched the whole thing in one sitting, because at that length, why not? Sixteen-year-old Maise Higa is a bit bored and working as the receptionist at her family's hotel. Ichirou Suzuki is a guest at the hotel and either a reality warper or the chew toy of someone else who is. Fish swim around him in mid-air and the hotel turns into an ocean. Trees behave as if they're jealous of Jack and the Beanstalk. Time loops.

That's the first half of the series, anyway. The story of each of those incidents is told in two episodes, i.e. four minutes, which is impressive. After that, Higa starts digging into who Suzuki is, what he wants and why he's here.

It's quite fun. It's certainly packing an impressive amount of surrealism in its short running time. The characterisation's good enough. We meet gods. You could definitely watch worse.

My copy only had an English dub, so I watched it on mute. I might have missed a bunch of stuff, then.

It seemed quite funny, though. In the near future, ordinary police are a bit stretched and so the government allows ordinary people to dress up as superheroes and help out as Deliver Police. To do this, you need a phone. Your phone app will tell you what to do, (mis)identify criminals, decide on appropriate jail sentences, etc. Unfortunately, it can be a bit awkward to ask the criminal who's holding you at gunpoint to wait while you check your phone.

There was also a silly car chase.

It's a good episode. I enjoyed it. This season/cour is mostly just a repackaging of the Mugan Train movie (which I've seen and disliked), but this introductory episode is an all-new prologue. Kimetsu no Yaiba can be excellent, when it wants to be.

It's all about the Flame Hashira, who's hunting down a demon on the Mugen Train. He's not annoying here, despite being a Hashira and despite his mad, unblinking eyes and eccentric manner. I liked him. He's a good guy who protects a little girl and her grandmother. His foe will be a demon who runs like the Flash and will be downright childish in his desire to upset the Flame Hashira by killing someone close to him.

Importantly, the show's main regulars are absent until the closing cameo parade. Mostly no Zenitsu or Inosuke, although their appearance at the end should ensure that all right-thinking people burn this episode and all subsequent ones. Even Tanjiro's sidelined. Nezuko isn't even mentioned. (I'd watch the hell out of a Nezuko show, by the way, but this show appears to be trying as hard as it can to avoid that.)

I quite like this series, but a few episodes here and there are enough for me. It's been running for 25 years and here it's close to its 1000th episode. Also, as it happens, this episode has a dumb introduction.

Our heroes (Conan, Ran, Sonoko, Kyogoku and Sera) have been watching a superhero movie. They see a gunman holding a woman hostage on the street, so karate master Kyogoku knocks out the villain. What they didn't notice was the camera crew and a director (sitting in a director's chair) who'd been blocking the pavement only a few metres away. Not concealed at all. Sigh.

The film crew get Kyogoku to stand in for the guy he'd knocked out, but it soon becomes the usual Conan whodunnit. Which is quite good, but I couldn't get over how the episode began. If you want to watch good Conan, though, there's lots and lots out there.

Our hero, Kimihiko Kimizuka, isn't a detective, but keeps stumbling across crimes and murders. "And now, today, I'm flying overseas having been made to carry an oversized attache case, containing who knows what."

Oi. Sod off. Are you stupid? Do not do this thing. Give it to the police, or the bomb squad. Already, I don't care about him. In the seat next to him on the plane, though, is a girl (Siesta) who is a detective. They're summoned to the cockpit for a hijacker confrontational scene that's theoretically interesting, or at least unusual in a self-indulgent, self-conscious sort of way, but unfortunately Siesta's cleverness contains no deductions or inferences. She just knew everything in advance. Uh-huh.

The tone's a bit odd. It might look real-world, but for instance "SPES produces androids of superhuman intellect to covertly menace the world." (I don't get it. Do SPES have a goal, or are they just menacing us for laughs? Is doing it covertly a contradiction in terms?)

Naaah. I gave up on this episode quite early.

I don't mind Digimon and I've watched a full series or two of it, but I didn't think much of this current one's first episode in 2020. This one didn't seem much better.

Our heroes are in the Digital Universe, fighting Digital Monsters. The episode's first half is lots of info-dumping from an emotionless rabbit digimon, after which there's a FIGHT!!! There's also stuff about digimon evolution.

Naah. I do, though, like the digimon designs. My favourites were the big shaggy dog heads, but I also liked the Bakemon (raggedy ghosts with fangs) and the talking tree stump people.

This series is about mysterious creatures known as "Hologram Ghosts" who resemble urban legends, spooky stories, etc.

This week, it's the Sewn-Lip Man, aka. Clockmon. He asks random victim what time it is, then fast-ages them almost to the point of death. From schoolchildren to wrinklies. He likes stealing time from humans. This makes for a reasonably nasty introduction... but this is still ultimately a kiddie franchise about young children and their pet digital monsters who fight a baddie every week. Our hero defeats the Sewn-Lip Man and all the lost time is returned to his victims, without even having to destroy him first.

The episode's fine, though. Perfectly respectable Digimon. I could imagine watching it.

I don't know if I'd go looking for this, but I'd watch if it came on TV while I was passing. Three crudely drawn dinosaurs live in a flat in Tokyo and talk about the Tyrannosaurus's part-time job and the fact that they're all doomed to extinction when a meteor strikes the Earth. Tyrannosaurus can't reach the cash register with his little arms, so his boss says he's a slow worker and has ordered him to work three times faster than he's currently achieving. Triceratops and Stenonychosaurus agree that this is power harassment, but they're quite impressed that a human has the nerve to be like that to a tyrannosaurus rex.

It's understated, deadpan and quite amusing.

Naoto Hachiouji avoids social interaction. On seeing loud, vapid-looking girls in the school library, his reaction is, "I'm never going to have anything to do with that species." (If he means 'the human race', that might be true too.) He's never looked a girl in the face before. He doesn't know how to get angry. He needs serious help.

Hayase Nagatoro talks a bit like Uzaki from Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! (which I loved), but is a lot more knowing and sadistic. She makes Naoto cry twice in this episode, although he does eventually admit that he doesn't actually hate having a playful, sexy girl paying him lots of attention.

Apparently it's based on an ecchi webcomic from a creator who'd previously done porn. None of that here, though. The episode even carefully avoids panty shots when Nagatoro does martial arts kicks in a miniskirt. I'm expecting to enjoy this series.

It's harmless, good-natured and guaranteed not to frighten the horses. I can see it being popular. Personally, though, I couldn't stomach it. The concept's fine, but the episode as a whole struck me as stupid. Our hero (male, but with an obviously female voice) is a rubbish dragon who got booted out by Dad after he failed to guard an egg properly. His stats are through the floor. "I know!" he thinks. "I need a house!"

1. He goes to some dwarves, thinking that they'd be good at building houses. They're about to cut him up and kill him (because he's a dragon), but he shouts, "Someone's trying to steal your gold". All the dwarves (20-30 of them) look around in unison, letting our hero escape. Even he's surprised that this works. "That's the oldest trick in the book. No way they're falling for..."

2. Next, he meets some harpies. This is anime, so they're sexy and topless, but have Lady Godiva hair to protect their modesty. They offer to let him stay in their nest, but he tells them that he can't fly (despite having wings). They suggest that he try anyway. He does. He plummets. D'oh.

3. He's captured by some child-sized goblins. They're not alarmed on finding A DRAGON IN THEIR NET TRAP.

4. Our hero is invited to live with a Sahuagin (Dungeons & Dragons fish monster). He dives underwater and nearly drowns. "Sorry, I just remembered that I've never gone swimming before."

5. On meeting a bloodthirsty party of adventurers, our hero looks around for the cameras. He thinks this might be a gotcha reality TV show. In what's otherwise a reasonably faithful sword-and-sorcery fantasy world. In fairness, though, the deconstructive conversation that follows is quite good.

In short, this show can piss off. I don't believe in it. Not for a moment. I can see how other people might think it's light and amusing, but I pretty much hate its "jokes". They're stupid enough that you might find yourself describing them to friends and family in conversations that begin with "I watched this bloody awful episode of anime this morning". The elf who shows up at the end is a lot more serious and I can see the show improving while he's around, but even so... no.

Stuff's happened since I last checked in with Dai and his friends. To be precise, they've had fights. It's a shounen series, i.e. for small boys, so that's what you'd expect. I don't watch this series, but I've quite enjoyed the two episodes I've seen of it and I could imagine changing my mind one day and returning to it.

There's some light-hearted love triangle stuff. One of Dai's friends (Popp) fancies another of Dai's friends (Maam), who might possibly have a thing for an undead legion commander who I'd guess was a just-defeated enemy. Well, it takes all sorts. There's also a bit of comedy, e.g. the amusing bit when Popp bad-mouths Maam. Meanwhile, Dai uses fire magic to try to uncover some fireworks. Whoops. (Yes, his friends call him an idiot.)

Naturally, a baddie arrives for a fight and trashes some mooks. He's an ice-and-fire demon. Dai then appears right at the end, as is right and proper.

When a little girl called Koto cries, her tears are mayonnaise. This hurts. Ordinary doctors don't believe her. She says that her mother will be inconvenienced by this, so they tell her to come back with this mother. (You might be wondering why mum didn't go with Koto in the first place, but this question will be answered as soon as you lay eyes on the grotesque parent.)

Ramune is a doctor who heals "mysterious" diseases. He's also a goofball, but Koto definitely isn't. I'm definitely up for this series. Also, next week's episode is about someone whose penis has turned into a chikuwa fish cake.

Season 1 was great. It ended with Senku and his friends being about to have to go to war against Tsukasa's army of people much, much stronger than them. Naturally, we all know Senku will win, because he's: (a) really clever, (b) knows that the most important weapons on a battlefield are mobile phones and pot noodles, (c) is a dirty scumbag bastard.

Don't forget (c). I'm not joking. That said, though, his plan is to achieve a bloodless victory, which would be a neat trick. Best thing in this week's episode: Senku's idea of weapons development, which I adore. Yes, the pot noodles.

The episode's quite likeable. The love couple were amusing. (She's jealous of anything with XX chromosomes, even if her boyfriend did no more than walk past in the street.) There are some witty reaction shots.

That said, though, my verdict on the episode is "absolutely not". It's yet another fluffy, pointless bundle of nothing. It's light and drama-free. It doesn't even start with an origin episode for its cast, instead having them already running their drugstore and doing nothing challenging or difficult. Our hero (Reiji Kirio) solves everything with his knowledge of medicines, which seems odd for someone who comes from another world and so might not be expected to know the local plants.

Furthermore, some of these are implausible. There's a giant stinky flower that smells so bad that Noela's eyes hurt. By putting some grass in a jar and shaking it with water, Reiji makes a natural deodorant that kills the smell when he sprinkles it on the flower. No, it doesn't just reduce it. It kills it. Completely eliminates it. Noela (a werewolf, with a dog's sense of smell) says the smell is gone.

Nope, I don't believe it.

Then we have the cast. Reiji is a nice bloke who's clearly destined to be adored by everyone. All other regular characters are female (and there will be more, if we can trust the end title sequence). Noela is a werewolf and Mina Fleuret is a ghost... theoretically, to a very, very small extent. In practice, 99% of their character description is "cute anime girls who are devoted to Reiji". Noela is the very definition of "harmless" and her wolf form is just a pet dog, who says "woof". (Only Reiji is allowed to hold her tail.) Mina wears woollen underwear when it's cold (apparently) and can write notes to give to Reiji when he goes shopping.

It's nice. Noela's lovable. But if I watch this series, my brain will melt.

This episode actually starts in the trading card battle arena, but it's only a dream. Satou goes to school and meets a bloke in a three-horned helmet, shoulder pads and a cape.

Then, inevitably, the episode's second half is a card battle in an arena.

When he was five years old, a witch cursed our aristocratic hero with a death touch. (Yes, even if he's wearing gloves. He can't get around it that easily.) Unsurprisingly, his family banished him to live in luxurious but almost solitary confinement, with the absolute minimum of servants to look after him. We see him kill a flower and (accidentally) a tree.

His maid, Alice, has big boobs and likes sexually harassing him, even though he repeatedly asks her to stop. (It's hard to tell from the ugly CGI, but I'm guessing that he's also a child.) She'll lift up her skirt, etc. But he can't touch, obviously.

Apparently, this is meant to be a romantic comedy, but eurgh. Mind you, the episode's quite good except for Alice and the CGI.

"What beautiful weather," thinks our anti-hero from his penthouse suite, on a miserable, rainy day. "Wage workers heading to the office in the torrential rain with flimsy umbrellas. Packed in rush-hour trains that barely allow them to breathe. Oh, how tough life must be for the common folk. I did it! I finally did it! I have evolved into the ultimate NEET... the Uber Pro NEET! My hard work up to this point has finally paid off! I saved up my allowances to pour into swing trading to build up capital, which I then invested in overseas real estate. The income from overseas became a stable income stream with no work involved!"

He then gets dumped in a dead-end job in a fantasy world, mining demon crystals from a dungeon for employers who urge their wage slaves to go without food and sleep. There's some parody, e.g. "It isn't work until you've messed up your health!"

That part of it's okay. But I couldn't care less about our scumbag anti-hero who's about to climb another greasy pole.