Season 2 of Castlevania: Nocturne is on Netflix now (started Jan 16)
I haven’t watched any of season 2yet, but probably will.
Brian
I finished watching season 2 of Mashle on Netflix. Unfortunately, it was mostly one long pointless fight spread out over multiple episodes (“My strongest attack did nothing to him!”), which is one of my least favourite anime tropes.
“Coming in 2026” now.
That’s disappointing, I’d like to see it even though, like so many manga, the writer ran out of good ideas after the first couple of story arcs and it just sort of limped to a finish.
Edit: (And, looking back up-thread I already groused about the diminishing returns on the manga.)
Same here. That cliffhanger needs a resolution.
I think The Summer Hikaru Died is pretty good, though I’m more of a dilettante than a connoisseur when it comes to anime. Hikaru is a teen who goes missing and is rescued, but—unbeknownst to anyone at first—actually died and has been replaced by . . . something. And the show is about not-Hikaru’s relationship with then-Hikaru’s best friend, who sees what’s going on very quickly (indeed, in the very first scene).
The animation is really good, seamlessly blending traditional and CGI techniques, and it does an amazing job of conveying the sweltering and oppressive heat of a rural Japanese summer.
One of the recent reviews brings that up:
The Summer Hikaru Died spends a commendable and concerted effort to evoke the feeling of a sweltering summer in rural Japan. It’s an oppressive season, when heat and humidity force people to cope in ways that, through repetition across generations, become codified as synonymous with it. Festivals, shaved ice, cooling down by the creek, and other similar signifiers turn into rituals. These are practical responses, born of natural phenomenon and biological necessity, that we elevate into the pantheon of culture.