Actually I agree. Chibiusa is an infantilized mess of a lot of things. Chibi Chibi is just a really young kid and acts like one, and doesn’t really come along with messed up story arcs and stupid jealousy humor and such
Anyway finished the 2nd arc (through ep 22). My opinion is mostly the same, with the added addition of I don’t totally care for the way they’re handling Seiya & Usagi. And in general feel like they’ve kinda just reduced the girls to the “fangirl + comedy troupe” a lot of the time. But overall am still enjoying, and should finish tonight or tomorrow.
My feelings are very much tinged with nostalgia bc I was about Usagi’s age when I first watched Stars (raw, needing my friend to tell me what happened if I got too lost bc I was N5 at best at the time. Ah the 90s ). On my rewatch I feel like that gets better towards the end of the season, but I could just not be objective about it. I definitely also fangirl over Seiya and his girl self’s way too tiny shorts too
Today I finished up the last 4 episodes of ゆるゆりS2 | Lv 21. Its a rewatch for me. One of the first shows I ever saw in Japanese. I struggled through it with JPN subtitles years ago. This time I watched it without subs, and didnt have any difficulties. Its a favourite of mine, and it was the first show I was ever a fan of without ever seeing or hearing an English word, so its a bit special to me.
I started 好きな子がめがねを忘れた | Lv 20 I saw this with friends with English subs when it first came out. Again, no real problems. Its cute, though, and the animation is unique.
I’m watching quite a bit “below my level” at the moment, for two reasons. One is that I am going for volume. Another is that lower level audiovisual stuff doesnt have a whole lot of grades. More than once me grading something has bumped up or lowered a level. I have more free time than most right now, and I’d like to contribute as much grading as possible.
I really made use of the low graded shows last year to great results. Now I’m also trying to do my part to grade some 18-25ish shows that don’t have gradings yet and in the process getting some more 魔法少女 shows graded to make people watch more with me
If you haven’t seen it yet, you should check out the live action Sailor Moon. Maybe I just added it to the database. (Okay I did: 美少女戦士セーラームーン | L30?? ) I remember liking it a lot because it added some dimension to the girls besides just Usagi.
Speaking of Sailor Moon, I saw the Sailor Moon Super Live recently and I am pleased to report that my Japanese was sufficient to follow along without having to fully pay attention for the subs. (Although I was still pleased that they had subs because they had not left enough time for all that whoo-ing that American audiences do vs. Japanese audiences.)
Some spolier-y thoughts: I had a lot of fun over all. The songs were pretty forgettable pop music that tended to blend together overall. The dancing was a lot of fun though, they had some special effects with prop lights that had me (and the audience) cheering. My favorite part was the revue at the end where they just came out and sang/dance some classic Sailor Moon songs including La Soldier. I was not clear if the finale of ムーンライト伝説 was supposed to be a sing-along (because the lyrics were in English but the vocals Japanese?) but I sang along anyway. I definitely lost my voice by cheering.
I’d like to give Sailor Moon a re-watch without English subs, but I’m currently working my way through 1,000 episodes of Pretty Cure.
I breezed through ふたりはプリキュア | L22 but I’m really dragging my feet on Max Heart. I was into Futari wa for the friendship between Nagisa and Honoka but Max Heart introdces a new girl and she’s… exactly the kind of self-insert I’d write if I was a 12 year old girl. But to me, as a [redacted]-year-old adult, I just kind of think she’s boring. I want the show to focus on Nagisa and Honoka again.
Still, I think Pretty Cure is a good gateway into listening to content for native speakers. Not too hard, can mostly follow dialogue other than the occasional villain monologue. It’s great!
Finished 美少女戦士セーラームーン Sailor Stars | L24 and left a review. It’s hard to know how I would have felt about it if I hadn’t seen Cosmos first, but overall I loved it, and this was the 2nd season where I actually watched all the episodes. I’ll probably go back and watch all the ones I skipped from previous seasons at some point, but not anytime soon 笑. Since I already started Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Collection | L30?? I’m gonna go watch that next. Otherwise I’m already reading the manga, and will maybe watch 美少女戦士セーラームーンクリスタル | L28 along with it. My season ratings in the end went: 4, 3, 4, 2, 4 - though S5 comes close to a 5 for me. As I already mentioned, when it comes to the main plot, I liked Cosmos much more - the execution is just much better, particularly with the final fight. But I like S5 too for different reasons.
I am really, really, really iffy on live action adaptations of fantasy anime/manga… like I just generally think they’re a bad idea. So I’ll keep that in mind, but not sure I’ll watch anytime soon… It occurs to me - there are drama CDs. I’ll have to search those out sometime too.
Very cool! I saw the ads for that, and thought about it - but that’s more money than I want to spend, and I’m not too inclined to go to big events these days anyway. That’s great you were able to follow along - and yeah, interesting cultural difference btwn JP & American audiences. Tangent, but that reminds me of seeing EN-subbed movies in theaters… it’s always a little weird, cuz ppl read faster than actors speak… so you’ll get people laughing at a joke before it actually occurs on screen and stuff.
Ah, thank you so much for your service. I’m hovering in some ill-defined L20-L25 area listening-wise at the moment, as far as I can tell, so more people grading stuff around there is super welcome.
Also, I think if, in the year of 2025, you’re just burned out on live action remakes of anything animated in general, you wouldn’t be alone!
Here’s some stuff I finished recently…
I liked this show a lot more than I thought I was going to! I started it for the cute anime girls and delicious anime food, and got really into it. Will definitely have to do a rewatch at some point, because there were points where the fantasy nonsense negatively impacted my comprehension.
My first seasonal anime I watched as it was airing (without subs). Knew nothing about it going in and really liked the first episode. After that, nothing really hit the same high as the first episode. I’d like to read the manga because the show felt a little rushed especially at the end where they were showing all the Uka’s classmates and half of them I don’t ever remember seeing. Are these cameos from the manga? Not sure I’ll revisit the anime in future, but it’s a cute, if a little standard, shoujo show.
To be fair, there are some live actions I want to watch, but it’s stuff like マリア様がみてる | L28 , 彩香ちゃんは弘子先輩に恋してる S1 | L24 , or maybe even 嘘解きレトリック S1 | L30?? - the first 2 I know I’ll enjoy, the 3rd wasn’t quite grabbing me in the first ep, but seemed like it could get interesting.
There’s also a stage version of ベルサイユのばら | L43?? iirc. There was a stage version of ささやくように恋を唄う | L20 but the theater troupe had to declare bankruptcy before they were able to produce any Blu-rays. The first half was on YouTube until then, and it was really excellent. Same group had previously done やがて君になる and some other stuff… very sad news
Are you why my first page when I sort shows is almost nothing but pretty cure? I’d watch them but I don’t know where to start.
For today, I couldn’t sleep last night so I finished Episodes 5 through 13 of 好きな子がめがねを忘れた。I then knocked off some of the short, 4 minute episode stuff, nothing of note. I did start ふらいんぐうぃっち | Lv 19, but I’m only 2 episodes in. I’ve seen the first 3 episodes before, but that was around the time I stopped studying for a bit, so I never finished it.
I actually can’t take credit for that I’m at least 10 years too old to have been into puricure organically. I do think I was the first to grade ハートキャッチプリキュア! S1 | L21 though. But I also dropped it before episode 10
I’m 5 episodes into 嘘解きレトリック S1 | L30?? which is looks like @暁のルナ has watched a bit of? Currently running on Viki.
As far as crime shows go it’s low gore and amusing, somewhere between comedy and light detective drama, but the timidness of the female MC does grate on me. They’re giving her a bit of character growth but I still sometimes want to shake her a bit.
I’m also continuing 秘密～THE TOP SECRET S1 | L35?? (7 episodes in) and it remains hilariously over the top, but has significantly darker themes than 嘘解き even if I can’t take literally any of it seriously because of how ridiculous it all is.
Just 20 min of episode 1. I was borderline on whether I was interested, and paused when I noticed it was a 57 min episode. I might be up to give it another try at some point? (or maybe just read the manga). That’s nice to hear it’s low on gore. I can appreciate a timid lead, but within limits. Curious to hear what you think by the end.
I read the first two volumes of the manga, but I got kinda bored. Some of its wackiness didn’t click with me. Of course, I have no idea if they carried the comedy style into the TV adaption.
Well, I will be watching them sooner or later. But I noticed the “first” one (I know theyre mostly standalone( is graded WAY higher than the others, and Im sorta going up levels grading in order, so it’ll definitely be a bit before I get to it.
I am itching for some harder stuff sooner rather than later. Though Flying Witch was great even with the lower level.
One of the things I learned by going through low graded content in both books and video that it’s nice to find an easy series to have a break from time to time, but pushing yourself with something you really like is also worth it. Both from an enjoyment and a language progress perspective.
Finished 日常 this week. Really, really enjoyed it! The nice thing about this series (for language learning) is that each episode is broken up into short skits, so if one skit is too hard to understand, another skit should start in shortly. I will definitely be giving this one a re-watch at some point.
Nichijou is great. I love it not just because of the learning potential but because it is one of the most hilarious shows I’ve ever seen.
The author restarted the Manga last year, and the show never adapted the last 3 volumes at the time to begin with, so thats something to look into if you enjoyed it.
). On my rewatch I feel like that gets better towards the end of the season, but I could just not be objective about it. I definitely also 
I’m hovering in some ill-defined L20-L25 area listening-wise at the moment, as far as I can tell, so more people grading stuff around there is super welcome.
