Alright folks, let’s all buckle in for the spring season’s first half in review! Usually, this is the time where I rank all the things I’m actively watching, using this informal halfway point marker to plot out how I feel about the season as a whole. But at this point, I just don’t watch enough airing shows to make that feel meaningful, and I haven’t for a while. That’s not to say I’m watching any less anime – I’m actually watching more anime than ever, it’s just scattered across airing shows, full releases for ANN, and independent projects for you guys. And personally, I’m significantly happier this way – keeping up with shows just because they’re hits wasn’t ever very fun for me, arguing about whether some megahit is great or terrible is mostly exhausting to me, and cutting down to the shows I’m genuinely really enjoying has led to a far more positive relationship with anime in general.

Unfortunately, all that reflection and self-growth doesn’t really help the old-fashioned, extremely arbitrary First Half in Review. So for at least this edition, I’m going to keep what works and toss what doesn’t really make sense, and run through some overall thoughts on my shows so far without implying those thoughts are any kind of ranking or evaluation. I’ve never been a person who cares to evaluate what makes an 8.74/10 show better than an 8.72/10 show – I want to know what makes either of those shows interesting in their own right, and hopefully me digging at that is a little interesting for you too. So let’s start with My Hero Academia for the hell of it and run this season down!

My Hero Academia

Well, I said I’d start with My Hero Academia, but now that I think about it, I’m not really sure what to say. So far, My Hero Academia’s third season has been pretty much precisely as good as I’d expect it to be, or maybe just a tad short of that. The summer training arc was a thrilling series of ridiculous fights and unlikely character highlights in manga form, and it’s continued to be precisely that in anime form. Not only have the big crescendoes like Deku’s battle triumphed, but even lesser conflicts like Tetsutetsu versus An Actual Gun have been very satisfying. As ever, my persistent complaint with the My Hero Academia anime is an excess of loyalty to the source material. Sequences like Tokoyami losing control of Dark Shadow offer the potential for some truly inventive layouts and unique animation feats, but the adaptation so far has been sticking fairly close to panel-by-panel shots echoing the source material. It’s a little frustrating, but it’s something I’ve learned to live with, particularly since this is by all accounts about as good as long-running shounen manga adaptations get.

Aside from that, I’m pretty set. This arc is a little low on Academia’s inspiring thematic stuff, but that’s just the nature of the arc, and I’m perfectly aware we’ve got great character-focused material coming up. This is a thrilling arc, it’s being executed well, I’m enjoying the fireworks.

Hinamatsuri

Hinamatsuri has experienced a somewhat surprising but also kinda natural shift in my estimations over the course of its first half. For the first couple episodes, it dazzled through the great timing and meticulous visual craft of its farcical comedy, mixing great visual punchlines, consistently well-employed anticlimax, and other fundamentals of comedy to just be genuinely hilarious all the time. That’s a rare enough thing in anime, and when you coupled that with its eminently likable cast, you had an extremely well-rounded production.

The show has not stayed that well-rounded, at least in my view. Over the past few episodes, I feel its strength as a comedy has faded more and more, to the point where I definitely would no longer be watching it just for the jokes. The inventiveness of the first couple episodes has narrowed into a steady stable of repetitive reaction faces, slight comedies of errors, and Hina’s very presence being funny by itself – all okay gags, but not show-sellers. However, as its strength as a comedy has faded, its strength as a character drama has improved by leaps and bounds. Sequences like Anzu moving away from the homeless encampment are portrayed with nuance and compassion, and the show is perfectly comfortable dispensing with jokes altogether for some of its somber character beats. I wouldn’t currently call Hinamatsuri a great comedy, but on the other hand all of its characters are now my children and if you hurt them I will kill you.

Megalo Box

Now if you are looking for consistency, Megalo Box has been as consistent as they come from first episode to right now, offering thrilling boxing exploits and a very engaging style of cool all the while. While I’ve enjoyed the show all along, I’ve simultaneously been waiting for the other shoe to drop on its visual execution while also hoping it might add some emotional heft to its iconic storytelling. At this point, it shows no signs of slowing down in terms of animation, and its recent Aragaki-focused arc nailed the emotional dismount while adding some necessary color to Joe and Nanbu’s relationship. The show is still too archetypal in its storytelling to really be a personal favorite, but it’s a remarkably impressive production on the whole, and as long as it ends well, it’ll be slotting comfortably into that “approachable, stylish gateway anime” category populated by the likes of Baccano and Bebop. That’s some lofty company, and I hope Megalo Box gets there.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These

Finally, Legend of the Galactic Heroes has pretty much been savory, delicious popcorn from first episode to last, simultaneously offering a rich cast of engaging characters, consistently fiery commentary on the nature of government, propaganda, and war, and some even some fun military capers as well. I can see why Galactic Heroes’ very laborious pacing might not possess mass appeal, but personally I’m loving how carefully it’s built up each of its key variables in turn, giving me plenty of reason to care about not just Yang, but also pretty much all the people he cares about, too. This adaptation is polished and attractive, we’re already getting into some of the meatier military campaigns, and the writing is as strong and painfully relevant now as it was back in the 1980s. The age of the operatic space drama may have ended, but I’m delighted to get such a strong and intelligent example of the form arriving today. Galactic Heroes may not be the most visually inventive or dramatically surprising shows out there, but it’s a damn good story told very well, and my main hope is that this adaptation lasts long enough to carry us to the end.