Every week, I visit about 215 anime sites looking for posts that celebrate amazing moments in anime or otherwise blow me away with their wit and charm. These are my five favorite posts for the week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
You can see a list of the sites I check here: Massive List of Sites!
ARUM JOURNAL
Oshi No Ko Episode 25 Review – Six Months Later…
Do you want to hear something funny? I mean funny as in weird. It’s this: OSHI NO KO isn’t on my back list. I kinda feel like I’m going to hell for saying that or something. That’s weird, too, in a different way. Anyway, before I get too far off track, I already felt strange about not wanting to watch that show. Then I read this review by ecargmura on the site ARUM JOURNAL. The way ecagmura described the drama and characters in this episode made me want to check it out just on the basis of its craftsmanship alone! Oh, well. Maybe my backlist does need expansion. While I ponder that, head on over and see what you think!
More Post from ARUM JOURNAL
Hanime on Anime
Rock is a Lady’s Modesty: All about Perception
Rock is a Lady’s Modesty is already comfortably hanging out in my backlog. It’s not in a bad position, either. Then I read this post by Hanime on Anime on the site Hanime on Anime. I really, really want to talk about her insight about the series. I really, really want to tie it to current events and discuss its importance as a cautionary tale. But the whole point of this post is to get you to read these other posts, not pontificate. So, if you want to know what really fired up my imagination, please don’t hesitate and click that green button below. You know, the one right here:
More Posts from Hanime on Anime
Iridium Eye Reviews
Martian Successor Nadesico Review
It’s been years since I watched Martian Successor Nadesico. Occasionally, I’ll recall a scene and chuckle. It had enough character depth that I couldn’t help but come up with fanfiction episodes. That’s rare. Only the shows that hit certain notes can do that to me. But, I really couldn’t describe why or how it hit those notes. But do you know who can? ospreyshire from Iridium Eye Reviews! The depth of knowledge on display here is humbling. ospreyshire explained references I hadn’t even seen. I want to reread this review a couple of times while taking notes, then rewatch the series! Go see if he mentions the things you noticed in the show!
More Posts from Iridium Eye Reviews
Merlin’s Musings
Anime Review: Betrothed to My Sister’s Ex
Look, I don’t want to mention my ever-growing backlog so often. But it’s the fault of all these bloggers who watch stuff I haven’t had a chance to watch! All joking aside, that’s a very good thing. If everyone watched the same thing, the world would be a boring place. As evidence that diversity of viewing is a good thing, let me offer this post by Merlin from Merlin’s Musings. This week, the show that Merlin watched that I didn’t is Betrothed to My Sister’s Ex. Did he describe it so well that it made me want to watch it? Of course. Did my backlog grow again? Of course. So, if you want to read about a series that might well expand your backlog, too, you know what to do!
More Posts from Merlin’s Musings
Reasons to Anime
Kill la Kill — Anime Review
Kill la Kill is on my list of series to potentially review as a throwback. What’s holding me back? It’s one of those rare shows that’s, well, hmmm. I sat here for way longer than I want to admit trying to fit my answer into something under 300 words. But that didn’t work. Fortunately for all concerned, I really don’t have to say anything, because this review by Casper on Reasons to Anime does a fantastic job of capturing the essence of the series. Seriously, this is my current favorite review of Kill la Kill, and that’s saying alot, because I adore this series. What to know why? Then read Castper’s review!
More Posts from Reasons to Anime
Want to Read More of My Favorite Anime Post Lists?
Want to explore more amazing anime blog posts? Check out the previous editions of My Favorite Anime Community Posts!
Want to Read Favorite Posts from Other Sites?
- Anime Feminist: Weekly Round-Up, 7-13 January 2026: Mixed Japanese Rep in PreCure, Shojo Drama Adaptations, and Cygames AI
- Lesley’s Anime and Manga Corner: Anime and Light Novel Blog Posts That Caught My Eye This Week (January 16, 2026)
TCrow, here’s my latest theory on Sousou no Frieren:
https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=198
It’s an interesting theory! When I watched the show, I wasn’t sure if he asked Frieren to join him knowing she shouldn’t, and therefore could say that her joining would make no difference because he knew she wouldn’t; or that he could see multiple paths (as you said, like Dr. Strange).
That said, I like your idea about the Hero of the South and the demon’s mage deciding this had to be — it’s kinda heroic for both. Though the problem I’ve always had with seeing the future is that it seems to put downward pressure on free will. How free can the Hero of the South be if seeing the future means he can’t change it? That alone makes your idea of him exploring multiple futures more attractive.
I can’t tell from the narrative so far if I can get behind your theory about demons finding a spell to resurrect the dead. Though your comments about them coming back somehow changed (e.g., under the control of the spell caster) could be thematically interesting. Would Frieren want to bring Himmel back, if he was her thrall?
I believe it’s possible that Frieren would bring back Himmel even if she had significant control over his actions. We know that Frieren’s village was destroyed by demons and that her mentor, Flamme, instilled a not-unjustified hatred of demons in her, so if a demon in the future does end up bringing back all the strongest demons from antiquity, there may be no choice but to do so depending on how strong the mages of the present are, which I will get into below.
Serie put it out there in Season 1 that Frieren’s casual approach to magic could result in her being killed by a human since humans have a limited lifespan, resulting in human mages devoting their lives to magic. We know that modern mages don’t use the basic spells that Frieren and Fern default to using, choosing to use more specialized magic that suits their combat-style more even though such magic is currently unable to penetrate the defensive spell that was invented to combat Zoltraak.
In Season 1, Ubel’s specialized magic allowed Ubel to cut anything she perceived as being prone to being cut, which is how they defeated the replica of the instructor due to its powers being centered around her hair, which Ubel believed is something that should be cut. A point made is that magic is heavily dependent on the caster’s imagination and perception, which is why Ubel can’t cut through defensive barriers since it’s unintuitive for her.
If it’s the case one’s imagination and perception’s the biggest limitation to one’s magic, Frieren and Fern may eventually face a mage who doesn’t have the same limitation in perception as Ubel, and if that does happen, they could get seriously hurt since they’d be defenseless against such magic. If that era of magic’s coming, perhaps Frieren will have no reason to bring back an undead Himmel should there be a return of many powerful demons from antiquity, but I don’t know where the story is going.
TCrow, here’s my trauma-informed post on why Aqua likes Kana in Oshi no Ko.
https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=196
I also share in the post Aqua’s true feelings on him acting as I feel a lot of people misunderstand Aqua in thinking that he only uses the entertainments industry as a means of revenge.
Thanks for the link!
Thank you so much for the shout-out! It was brought to my attention by MIB that my Nadesico review was featured there. Glad you enjoyed my thoughts on that anime!
You’re welcome! It was great seeing you write anime reviews again! Nadesico’s a show I wish got more attention, so thanks for that!
Sure thing. I’m glad you liked the review an that you’ve seen this anime series before. I agree that Nadesico should get more attention.
Thank you kindly for the shout-out. Kill la Kill was a tough anime to review. Its appeal is so obvious while you watch it, but to put it into words is another matter entirely.
You’re welcome! And I get it! Every time I consider about reviewing it, thinking about how I’d express my reaction to the show just seems too daunting for the the time I have available! Though maybe that’s a good argument for trying it. Stretch objectives being a thing!
I remember Betrothed to my Sister’s Ex. I saw the pcitures and read the description and decided to ignore it. But people kept saying nice things about the show, so after four episodes were out I decided to give it a try. I mean I try out a lot at the start of the season, and there’s no way I haven’t given a worse show a chance. And I was fully prepared to quit the moment I was bored or something ticked me off… but then before I knew it the four episodes were through, and I had to wait… One. Whole. Week! Yeah, it’s a pretty good show, and the set up was a very rare thing in anime: a totally plausible and understandable misunderstanding. Yeah, it’s worth watching. It wasn’t at all what I expected, and I almost passed it up.
Sounds like I should watch it just to see a plausible misunderstanding! Those things are rare.
The thing about idol anime (and all sorts of other genres) is that “idol” is more of a framing device, and you usually don’t get wall-to-wall musical performances, just like you won’t see a whole baseball game in baseball anime, or you don’t need to play shogi to watch March Comes In Like a Lion.
If the idol anime has any element of realism you’ve got young people taking on a career that seems to give them less personal freedom than joining the military, with all the personal drama layered on top of that.
I think of Nadesiko as the answer to Evangellion. Don’t want to get in the robot? Do it anyway!
I could easily see Nadesico being a response to EVA with some of the characters and storyline concepts there.
Thanks for the mention! Oshi no Ko can be hit or miss, but make sure to avoid manga spoilers because people love to spoil.
You’re welcome! And thanks for the reminder. Occasionally, I’ll see discussion about the manga. I’ll be extra sure to avoid reading it!
Technically, I feel that ecargmura’s post itself has a spoiler since we anime-onlies aren’t supposed to know Aqua and Ruby’s father’s name, but ecargmura is literally putting a name to this character whose name we’re not supposed to know yet.
I can’t blame her, living as I do in a glass house — I accidentally did the same thing with the Goblin Hunter series. I just used MAL to grab the character names. It never occurred to me that they just used titles!
My evil plan to ever add to the backlog is working, mwahahaha! 😀 Glad you enjoyed my review!
It did feel kinda evil-planish! j/k, of course. It was a fun review — thanks for publishing it!