I’m very hit or miss with that stuff, but any you’d recommend that are on the easier side (relatively)? Tbh this is another instance where “maybe Anki/jpdb would actually be useful for this sorta thing”. (I only find SRS useful for domain-specific, uncommon vocab at this point - like names or this sorta terminology).
Just find someone to chat about military and military-adjacent media with. That should be pretty easy, right? 
That is how I would sort every military-adjacent media I’ve watched/read in Japanese from easiest to hardest:
ヨルハ 真珠湾降下作戦記録 1 | L27 | Vie's review of ヨルハ 真珠湾降下作戦記録 1 | Natively
The most accessible introduction to military jargon that I know. I don’t hear anyone talking about it but I liked it quite a bit.
怪獣８号 S1 | L31
Entertaining shounen action but nothing really ground-breaking. Does not contain many parts heavy on military-vocab so it is not that hard overall
進撃の巨人 | L31 | Vie's review of 進撃の巨人 S1 | Natively
A favorite of mine. Peak anime with a heavy dose of military compound terms. Not much in the way of guns though. I found it very challenging but it was too interesting to give up.
Watch out that the difficulty of the Final Season is for some reason a sudden two-fold increase compared to previous seasons.
８６―エイティシックス― S1 | L32
Spider-like mechas manned by oppressed ethnic group fight in a war-ridden battlefield and receive orders and tactical information from a “handler” in a remote command center. Very very challenging. I think its Natively level could be pushed up more in my opinion.
銀河英雄伝説 S1 | L34??
The absolute hardest thing I’ve ever seen in my Japanese life, wtf. I gave it a try but the kanji compounds are so long and so frequent that the subtitles look like they’re written in Chinese. Only time you finally see some hiragana is when an aristocrat starts explaining some elaborate political scheme in fancy quasi-archaic Japanese. I knew it was gonna be hard but I figured that with over 100 episodes, I will eventually get the hang of it (I overestimated myself)
While exploring those anime/manga, I realized that I really liked the command center scenes so I also made a list that tracks those: Command centers not in space | Japanese list by Vie | Natively (Rather specific, I know)
I’m sorry for the late reply, I don’t check here enough! I was able to catch it in theatres, but it’s coming to Prime video worldwide soon… def check it out !!
I just watched スラム which was recommended by @pm215 and found it very interesting. It’s from 1961 and about the post-war slums. If you watched Godzilla Minus One you probably have a rough idea as to the shape of them.
I’d never actually seen a film of this type from a Japanese perspective. The music was a bit intense which made listening to the narrator a bit hard in places, but I got the overall thrust of the piece.
Seeing the guy in the bunk smoking a cigarette and dropping ash on the floor of a wooden building with exposed beams made me so nervous though 
No worries. Good to know!
I’m all caught up on Blue Box. Been enjoying that one a lot. The story is good (if a bit cliche) and I like all the main characters. The animation is great too.
I also just started Giji Harem. In complete contrast with Blue Box, the animation is basically as average as can be. But it was funny which is what matters most. I’ll continue for now and hopefully it won’t get too repetitive.
Giji Harem actually surprised me. After the first few episodes I thought I was going to drop it but I kept with it and really enjoyed the whole series.
Started watching Tales of Zestria the X (Cross).
I’ve played both Tales of Zestria and Tales of Berseria so know the story well and thought this might be some good listening practice for re-playing the games soon.
Only 8/26 episodes in but wondering if they are going to show both storylines as they are interlinked.
I started watching 天狗の台所 S1 | L30?? (on Netflix Japan) and it’s basically a slice of life cooking show that has tried to disguise itself as a show about folklore / tengu. Not sure I’ll finish it, but it does make a nice chill watching option for when I want that. There’s not a ton of dialogue and aside from the teen boy mumbling a lot there isn’t much to make the audio difficult either.
Edit: as an aside, it’s driving me nuts that TMDB’s release dates are a week behind for アオノハコ b/c Netflix released the first 2 eps together for week 1. Really wish I could mark the episode as Watched here, instead of having to wait a week each time
I was checking the plot, and it’s exactly where I dropped the LN series, heh.
(To be fair, I wanted to drop it earlier, but I already owned the books)
I can entirely understand why… there’s a lot of things I like about the anime, but this is not one of them. I really liked the arc before this tho
you are far more masochistic stronger than I. I did try book 1 (when it was way too hard), and I didn’t really enjoy being in the MC’s head. Idk about the novels, but at least in the show he’s become a lot more bearable… unfortunately many of the other characters and gags haven’t.
It’s one of the first LN series I read, back when I wasn’t familiar with the genre. I started reading it with an informal book club on the WK forums.
A lot of tropes are a lot more bearable when you don’t know they are tropes 
Mostly, I was super excited by the actual game-like nature of the setting (with actual numbers being shown, and those numbers going up).
Hmmm, usually the opposite for me? But I guess I could see that sometimes
Huh… there’s not a whole lot of that in the anime (which I’m very fine with). Like there is some, but it’s basically only at level up acknowledgement time.
For me, it’s a “can’t unsee it” type of deal, especially stuff that are aimed at a “male” audience (heavy quotation marks, since I don’t even think guys particularly like it in general that may be wishful thinking).
Yeah, showing pages on end of stats does not sound particularly anime friendly. The one experience I have is 痛いのは嫌なので防御力に極振りしたいと思います, which is also stats heavy (I watch the first season and read the LN series quite far). Stats were really dialed down in the anime.
I guess that in this case, they compensated the lack of stats with Hestia’s breasts bouncing animations or something
That makes sense. And my limited impression is “it varies”
Ahh, I’ve never read the LN, but enjoyed the first season well-enough as a candy/turn my brain off and “just watch” show. Didn’t feel motivated to read the 2nd, but maybe I should try the LNs someday. Probably useful mix of fantasy + accessible level for me.
Basically, exactly that tho 
Just watched episode 1, and this is incredibly fresh and unique. Very original - animation, characters are kinda out of the box, the scenario and the aliens and ghosts are really something. It does feel slightly Americanっぽい in a sense… but in a good way. Idk something about the first ep reminds me of cartoons and movies I used to watch, but I can’t quite place it… Not crazy about the OP, but the ED is really fun!
Anyway, I’m gonna go binge the next 3 eps that are out, and see if I can’t write something more articulate than “I definitely recommend it”. Edit: I watched all 4 eps, and just really don’t know what to say besides soooooooo goooood. It’s super fun and creative, and high-tension, and keeps you guessing the whole episode. Tho 4 episodes to get rid of Turbo Baba felt like a bit much…… but the MCs interactions with each other and the grandma are soooo worth it!!
I really enjoyed the first season of Bofuri (turn off brain fun as you said), but the second season was a huge letdown. If I remember correctly, @Naphthalene disliked that section of the LN as well.
Judging by my gradings and the fact I can’t remember what happened, I would go with yes. Most of the series feels pretty same-y past the original broken build she makes during the first 4 volumes/season 1.
Hah! I’m not even surprised.
Ok apparently I don’t want to read tonight and just want to binge TV so I also started オクラ～迷宮入り事件捜査～ S1 | L35?? which is just lovely if you like cop dramas with corruption. You don’t find out that spoiler til the end of episode one, so it’s not major but it does change the tone.
Basic premise is there is a prim and proper young career cop who joins the career dead-end cold case unit full of the various people the department would like to get rid out / get out of sight. He ends up pairing up with a very much not prim and proper older cop to solve cases and we see their delightfully contrasting personalities bounce off each other.
I’m kind of sad it’s only 5 episodes. I’m already halfway through the second one 
I think it’s still airing though?
