The Ultimate Host's Mid-Year Review

This year I'm serving as the Host (the Discord role is named “Ultimate Host” which goes hard) of my university's no-longer-unfortunately-named anime club, and the most active part of that role has been hosting the weekly anime viewings. Naturally this means I have the great(?) power of selecting what the club watches. The ones who show up, anyway.

Since last year the format has been a bunch of seasonals with 1 episode of each per week and one older series with 2-3 episodes per week. I’ve kept it 3+2 and I think it has worked quite well, though there are some fundamental issues with the current format - mainly that spreading out series over so many weeks makes it difficult to just “jump in”. Conversely the upside is that we have room for variety with so many different series running at the same time. Finding a good balance would be nice at some point.

Anyway, this post is just going to be me going over my choices and why I made them, as well as how they turned out - in my opinion at least.

Winter 2026

Sentenced to be a Hero 

Aired in Japan: late-night on terrestrial TV

Source: light novel from an ASCII Media Works danseimuke imprint

This was a fairly obvious choice for me, since there weren't many new high-profile action shows in winter. The first episode is one hour long and frankly a bit heavy, but once the story really gets going it's quite entertaining. I like how the main duo is tonally balanced - the cynicism of a trapped soldier contrasted with a bright young girl who just wants headpats… oh, and is also a living weapon. (The burning ahoge is masterful design work.) 

You and I Are Polar Opposites 

Aired in Japan: dinnertime on terrestrial TV

Source: manga from a Shueisha web magazine

For some more contrast, the fantasy action is followed by a romcom. Now, I consider myself a pretty big romcom anime guy, and even then I was caught off guard by how good this show is. It avoids extremities - “polar opposites” does not mean, like, shut-in and class queen here - but never feels bland or basic or sauceless. It's full of life and personality, realistic without compromising its tone, funny in a genuinely charming way, and sweet but not overtly saccharine. I didn't pick the second “season” for the summer lineup because I stick to “no sequels”, so I'm having a blast watching it on my own. I hear the author’s other series is also good?

ShiboYugi: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table

Aired in Japan: late-night on terrestrial TV

Source: light novel from a Media Factory danseimuke imprint 

I wasn't originally going to pick this, but there was demand for it. I had intended to watch it myself anyway - though I still haven't seen Days with My Stepsister, I had heard enough about Souta Ueno to be interested in his take on a death game story, and the result was certainly… interesting. It's some of the most unconventional TV anime I've seen, slowly and steadily painting a surrealistic picture of a deranged world. It's astonishing what it accomplishes with clearly suboptimal resources. Not for everyone, but if you vibe with it - and the vibes are immaculate - it could become something that stays with you for a long time.

A Place Further than the Universe 

Aired in Japan: primetime on satellite TV, late-night on terrestrial TV

Source: original 

Now for the non-seasonals! For the first one I went with a long-time favourite that was also fitting for a cold time of the year. Still a joy, even on a third rewatch. Truly, in the words of a modern poet, “friendship is a drug”. 

Akudama Drive 

Aired in Japan: late-night on satellite TV

Source: original 

This choice was in part motivated by timing, since I had estimated that we’d get to the finale on Easter. It is an Easter anime after all. Didn't quite work out, but it was still fun to rewatch this for the first time in five years. And now with the extended final episode too, which left me with a much better impression than five years ago.

Spring 2026 

Daemons of the Shadow Realm

Airs in Japan: late-night on terrestrial TV

Source: manga from a Square Enix shonen magazine 

For spring’s action slot, I figured that the audience (me included) is sufficiently fond of FMA that a new shonen adventure from Hiromu Arakawa would be a good choice. It’s been a good time for sure - the casts of both humans and daemons are colorful, the low fantasy setting and its practicalities are well thought out, and the different factions are wonderfully morally ambiguous. The plotting has been slowburn, but with the second cour continuing into summer, there’s plenty of time for it to develop.

Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk 

Aired in Japan: late-night on terrestrial TV

Source: manga from an Akita Shoten web magazine 

I had long heard whispers in the sakuga community that “Kamiina Botan will save the world”, so I was curious about it anyway. But the moment I finished the first episode, I knew that I had to pick it for the viewings. I mean, it’s about university students (some specifically engineering students) getting drunk. It’s a teekkari anime. The yuri part is less relatable to this particular audience, but I’m sure everyone can agree that there’s never enough good yuri anime. (Disclaimer: the views expressed in this post are solely my own.) And this is some S-tier gourmet yuri. Girls drinking whisky and talking about foreign films? Absolute cinema. It's not without tension and conflict, but none of that is ever needlessly dragged out. Also Chin-Lan is the greatest lesbian of all time.

Nippon Sangoku

Aired in Japan: late-night on terrestrial TV (early streaming)

Source: manga from a Shogakukan web magazine 

Another wildcard that was chosen because of demand. The tone is best described as utter ridiculousness played completely straight - a very specific type of anime bullshit, and I mean that as a compliment. It can feel dry at times, and the main character spends a good chunk doing almost nothing, but the highlights are worth the price of admission. 

Undead Murder Farce 

Aired in Japan: late-night on terrestrial TV

Source: novel from a Kodansha general imprint

It took me long to decide what to pick for spring’s first non-seasonal. In the end I went with a decently fun alt-history adventure that I have a soft spot for, despite the story never really going anywhere within the runtime of the anime. Oh, and like Akudama, it stars my favourite seiyuu Tomoyo Kurosawa, which was certainly a factor.

Astra: Lost in Space 

Aired in Japan: primetime on satellite TV, late-night on terrestrial TV

Source: manga from a Shueisha web magazine 

Same goes for Astra, although it has more of an ensemble cast and Kurosawa’s character isn't really the “main character”. This was my third time watching it, on top of having read the manga too, and it's still a really tightly written mystery that benefits from the rewatch bonus. 

At the end I figured I'd compile a few statistics about these series we’ve watched, mostly just for fun but it should also be interesting to see if there's room for more variety. Warning: nerdery incoming.

Starting with source material:

Half of these 10 anime are manga adaptations, with a couple of light novel adaptations and originals each, and one novel adaptation too. One thing worth bringing up is that both of the originals have been non-seasonals - maybe I should give more chances to seasonal originals? I guess so far those just haven’t fallen into the sweet spot where I’m interested in them but not so much that I’d rather watch them at my own pace.

What about demographics? (For adaptations only.)

The first thing to catch the eye is that we have not watched a single female-audience adaptation. That is not surprising given the demographics of the regulars, but stepping outside of one’s comfort zone can be very worthwhile so maybe I should keep my eyes open for any interesting-looking shojo or josei. 

Moving on from that, one thing that becomes apparent is that demographics-based classification is difficult: 5 shows are not from traditionally gendered sources at all. Two are from Shonen Jump+, which has “shonen” in the name but is self-admittedly a very diverse web magazine. Astra certainly “feels like shonen”, Polar Opposites less so. Kamiina Botan is from a general web magazine but the tankobon are released by Young Champion Comics, a label associated with a seinen magazine. Does that make it seinen manga? 

Maybe it’s best to leave it at that.

More relevant for the anime adaptations is airing time.

Now we’re reaching hardcore levels of nerdery. To no surprise, the vast majority have been late-night anime. (Yorimoi and Astra aired on AT-X at primetime, but that’s an anime-specialized channel and they did air on more general TV later in the night, so it absolutely counts as what is considered “late-night anime”.) Polar Opposites is the only one to air earlier in the day, at 17:00 on MBS/TBS’s “nichi-go” block. Which tracks, since it’s definitely a decently not-mainstream-unfriendly show.

I think that’s enough statistics for this post. Viewings have been continuing through summer and this season we’re continuing Daemons and also watching Inept Villainess, The Ghost in the Shell and Deca-Dence. So that’s narou-kei, classic shonen manga and an original from a few years ago? I guess the same kinds of trends are continuing at least for this season.