I can sympathize with the photo posing issues. When I first started dating my wife we both had no idea how to pose and ended up looking awkward together in photos.

It’s always a good time watching these shitheads have a bad time.

Anime largely doesn’t have this.

There are a few. Kaguya-sama: Love is War is arguably best in its third season and imho the first several episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are its weakest part. Eureka Seven, Umamusume, and Gintama also come to mind. I had to wrack my brain for those examples though; they really are the exception.

Gifts are hard! I keep scrupulous notes; every time someone in my family mentions wanting something I write it down. It’s nice to have a list when birthdays & Christmas come up.

The Office and Fairly Oddparents were both big shows when they were current though.

Started watching Golden Kamuy this week so I could get caught up with the new season that’s airing and I’ve got to say it’s a wild time. Shame the first episode having that horrible-looking bear turned so many people away.

Edit: Just watched the first episode of You and I Are Polar Opposites. Not sure how I feel about the story yet, but wow. What a gorgeous adaptation. Also worth noting that the subtitles are well-executed with good typesetting and everything!

2nd edit: Just watched the first couple episodes of Ikoku Nikki. Seems like a good, chill, well-written story with a competent adaptation. Unfortunately the subtitles in the first episode had at least one error and I noticed while watching the second episode that Crunchyroll didn’t bother with typesetting for this one. I guess since it’s not a big shounen thing they don’t care much about doing a good job.

Been reading Moriagaranai Date/An Unexciting Date lately; currently 16 chapters in. There’s a certain charm to how awkward these main characters are. Each character’s awkwardness just bounces off the other character’s awkwardness so well; very charming and humorous.

Also been reading Magic Knight Rayearth 2. After Magic Knight Rayearth finished with one of the endings of all time I’m glad to see that the story continues. Gonna be honest though, the story doesn’t seem to be anything special so far. Still well-worth reading for the gorgeous art!

Oh yeah, Apocalypse Hotel was a lot of fun.

LOOK BACK is super good, and it’s a short movie so it’s not as much of a time commitment.

If you’re into sports anime my favorite recent one is Medalist. Now is a pretty good time to pick it up since the second season starts airing in just a couple weeks!

Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon is also super good if you want more of an adventure.

I read the first chapter a while back; it was really cute! Would love to find the time to get caught up sometime.

Lol, definitely not making isekai light novels look good if this is what’s winning literary contests and readers choice awards.

Right?? I just finished the last three episodes today and was extremely surprised when the big race ended halfway through episode 22 and episode 23 featured a race entirely populated with characters we’ve never seen! I guess they’re following the Dan Da Dan school of ending a season: “This is how far we got with the source material. It’ll make sense later when you can watch it all at once.”

The Japanese are playing a whole different pronoun game from us. I swear I come across a new one every other month reading manga.

Really unfortunate that the one I’m most interested in, Medalist, is one of the last ones to start.

Thanks for the recommendation; I enjoyed the first chapter and will hopefully be able to find the time to read the rest of it later.

I feel exactly the same way about Frieren. It’s not that the shounen battle stuff is done poorly - quite the opposite! But before the mage exam it felt like Frieren was a really unique story. Once the exam arc started it began to feel a tad generic (though still quite well-executed). I really liked the third exam though!

I’m glad they adapted most of my favorite chapters, but they didn’t quite get all of them. I wouldn’t mind the show ending this way if we got 3 or 4 episodes instead of just 2. At least what we did get was top-quality. I enjoyed myself immensely beginning-to-end.

Well, I guess saying “the show ending this way” is an exaggeration. I almost forgot there was a movie teased at the end.

Isn’t this slap a Gundam reference?

It absolutely is! I was laughing my ass off at this btw. But that’s not the first Gundam reference in Kaguya-sama: Love is War, nor is it the last. As far as I can tell the last one is the V-tuber plan notebook Papa Shirogane has.

As for the first, I think it’s when Karen sees Shirogane and Kaguya kissing at the end of season 3. I’m not certain though; it’s possible there’s another one even earlier.

Glad to see that dopey-looking turtle outfit finally getting replaced!

Even if you don’t read or watch it, since you have it physically anyways I’d encourage you to just flip through it and look at the art sometime.