This is my place.

Spoilers!

Finally, we get episode 2 of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, OVA season 5.

The voice actors are different from the original, the animation has lost its charm, and Tenchi and his original harem seem to be a bit players so far. The charm of the original was the comedic bickering of Ayeka and Ryoko over a long-suffering Tenchi. Plus there was the larger harem full of unique characters, his father and grandfather, and an external threat to be fought. This was just as true with Tenchi Universe, Tenchi Tokyo, and the movies, Tenchi Muyo! Daughter of Darkness and Tenchi in Love.

There has been a huge influx of new characters brought over from Tenchi Muyo! GXP. Tenchi’s father’s marriage in OVA 4 brought in his new wife Rea, their son Kenchi and another horde of characters. But it is really just a setup for Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar, which has been out since 2010. I don’t see the point. Dots that did not need to be connected.

Too damned many characters to keep track of and too much effort wasted in tieing in spin-offs as “canon.” Two episodes and still no action. The little bits of humor were bland. All talk talk talk and gossip. OTOH, Sasami has grown up and could reasonably make a play for Tenchi.

I’m not sophisticated about anime art but this doesn’t impress. The characters just don’t look as good even though the lines are sharper and the colors more saturated. Somehow they just feel bland.

Poor Tenchi! I’ll keep watching for now and hope it picks up. OVA 4 was no world-beater, either.

I have lost interest in Sing “Yesterday” for Me. Forget Morinome. Haru is a far more interesting woman. She is fighting for your affection while Morinome is still hung up on a dead guy and the dead guy’s younger brother.

OTOH My Next Life as a Villainess continues to delight with ep. 11. (It is so sweet I’m getting cavities!)

It gets my vote for best series of the season. But I caught one flaw… When Maria disappeared, Catarina said in the narration that they never saw her again. It gave the show a sudden dark twist. But now we have her back. Dammit! Lost the darkness! Unreliable narrator?

It got a bit confusing for me. Catarina is dark-magicked into sleeping beauty mode. Sasaki, her friend from her previous life, somehow spaced over to occupy Sophia when Catarina has a dream about her old life. In that dream, she tells Catarina the secrets of Sirius Deieke that she could only have gotten from playing the game thru to the finish, something Catarina didn’t get to do. Then she sends little fireflies to tell the harem members not to give up and call Catarina back.  Does that mean Sasaki died too? What will Sophie think of her new guest?

BTW, what became of Catarina’s original occupant? Did the knock on the head kill that snotty bratty little girl?

I’ve binged Black Butler, Helsing, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Castlevania, and Sarazanmai. All excellent anime… except Sarazanmai used the same battle sequence scene over and over and over. That got tedious. But otherwise, it was quite fun. And is “Castlevania” really anime?

Witchblade lost my interest after a few episodes.

I started rewatching Death Note and discovered it isn’t quite as good the second time around. What messed it up for me was episode 7 with the FBI lady, Naomi. Her fiance (previously killed by Light) had said that she was the best agent the FBI had. Yet in the story, she acted worse than a novice – a naive girl. Light practically told her he was Kira while somehow convincing her that he – a high school student for chrissake – was part of the official investigation. And off to a hangman’s noose, she goes.

Not only did they make her seem stupid, but they doubled down by trying to pluck my heartstrings. (Fail.) Or maybe they are trying to make Light seem sharp by pairing him with a supposedly sharp antagonist who is really a dull antagonist. That’s a very old trick for when you have to write about a character who is vastly more intelligent than you are. It is not at all satisfying to me.

Where is Detective Conan when you need him?