Natsume's Book of Friends is a gentle supernatural series that I'd expected to like more than I did. Should I have started from the beginning? Or did I actually do that, but I've since forgot? Well, never mind.

This particular micro-special is on YouTube. Takashi Natsume and his "sensei" (a talking cat called Madara) take a trip and do touristy things. Pray at a temple, see a pretty waterfall, explore some underground caves, etc. Madara moves like a gliding slug and is much weirder than the supernatural things we occasionally see in the background. A kappa briefly pops up in a river and there's a Big Chin Bloke I'm assuming is a youkai.

It's relaxing and nice. There were a few Natsume's Book of Friends bits and pieces in 2021, including a 51-minute movie.

There's a Japanese YouTuber group called Fischer's, which in February 2022 was the most-viewed YouTube channel in Japan (13.4 billion views) and the 7th most-subscribed channel in Japan (7.23 million subscribers). This was an animated music video to celebrate the marriage of one of their members. Ndaho is the fat one in the group and seems likeable enough, from what we see here. He does a concert, goes running, drinks in an izakaya with his friends, etc.

The video's not particularly clear as a narrative, but the general intention comes across and it's quite nice.

Robu the Cat seems sort of timid. He's a minimalist line drawing against a white background and after tentative efforts he eventually manages to say that he'd like us to write him a letter. He even promises to read it.

Crows are calling in the distance.

The episodes have different titles, but they're a series. Netokano also calls itself "NTR Kanojo", while Netoshisu is "NTR Kanojo Case 2". They're basically the same unpleasant story, except in minor details. Netokano goes as follows:

A girl (Mizuki) got drugged and raped by her teacher (Ijima-sensei). "It seems that he'd had his eyes on me since I entered school." How young would that have been? Don't think about that. She even has a boyfriend (Souta)... but she wants to be in the tournament, so she obeys Ijima-sensei's orders and goes on servicing him every day! (Also, he's blackmailing her with photos and videos he'd taken, while also dangling an offer of an official recommendation.)

"My horrible sexual relationship with sensei went on through the summer camp."

Eventually she decides she likes it and sends Souta a DVD of herself with Ijima-sensei. That's almost the first thing that happens in this hentai, actually, with everything else being a flashback leading up to that. The whole thing's pretty nasty.

Kousuke Mikado can see dead people. Another ghost-hunter wants to use his body and enter him. This is technically a sort of exorcism thing, but the episode is extremely aware of the subtext and indeed could be called borderline rapey. (It's an adaptation of a manga from a Boys' Love magazine.)

I didn't find it offensive or anything, but I'm afraid I snoozed a bit. I'm not the target audience, though.

"The world is physical. This is an important announcement from the government. Worship of gods and buddhas is a thought crime. Belief will destroy your life, as well as the lives of your friends and family. Let's all stop believing in anything that cannot be physically proven. The government forbids the sale, creation or distribution of any product or book dealing in subjects such as supernatural phenomena, spiritual energy, fictional persons and stories."

The banning of religion sounded interesting, but the rest of that speech kept sounding dumber and dumber. Oh, and all the main characters are dead-eyed CGI pretty boys. There's a pair of brothers who hunt down VICIOUS CRIMINALS!!!!! (i.e. idiot followers of some bloke who calls himself Miracle Mick) and kill them. Then, we meet a similar but younger pair of brothers with psychic powers. I assumed for a while that I was watching a flashback about what these boys were doing a few years earlier, but no.

It's set in an unremarkable dystopia. It's the year 2041 and there's been a World War Three. I liked the possible-ghost girl, even though she says, "The barrier has been broken. Unless one becomes aware of the tuned connection, all moments will collapse."

Apparently this show is a reboot of a 2006 anime called Night Head Genesis, which itself was based on a 1992 live-action TV drama called Night Head. Presumably those are better than this. They won't be CGI-animated, at least.

It's about boxing. Fighters compete in boxing matches.

Apparently it's very good. Season 1 got lots of praise in 2018. But it's about boxing. Naaah.

(There's also a spin-off short anime called "Nomad: Megalo Box 2 Short Anime", available on the BD box set.)

I know I watched this show's first two seasons. I presume I didn't hate it.

Returning to it now, though, it's not a show you watch for plot, dramatic events or indeed much happening at all. It's set in a middle-of-nowhere mountain village with more cows than cars. There are five students in the school. Not the class, the entire school.

The show's most important character is its youngest, a girl called Ren-chan. She doesn't sound like a child, but like an adult actress doing a silly anime voice that we're meant to accept is an under-emoting child. While holding her nose.

The episode's first half wasn't about anything, really, except that the girls' schoolteacher (Kazu-nee) kept falling asleep. The second half was okay, though, and had someone asking for help with the flute. Ren-chan's giant toad was mildly amusing. I don't hate the idea of continuing with this series, but it's clearly the anti-matter opposite of "must-watch".