Decade Anniversary of 2016 Anime

2016 happens to be an important year in my personal history with Anime. Even though I’d had some interest in some Anime for 20 years previously, and at the end of the year still had only seen a fraction of the Anime I’ve seen now (maybe even specially a minority of what had existed up that point), it was during this year I feel I truly became an Otaku, became someone whose interest in Anime and related media took priority over all the older Nerdy interests I do still have. 

For Winter 2016. 

Grimgar of Ashes and Illusions is an Anime I didn’t finish but it’s notable to some as a lost potential of what Isekai could have become if it’d been Darker or more Realistic and or just generally taken itself more seriously. 

Knosuba is the opposite yet also a show I never finished even the first season of as the ultimate Isekai parody.  

This season also had the second cour of Gate which I’ve talked about before.

Erased is a show I’ve watched twice and I like it, yes even its ending. 

And it had the last season of Durarara!! Which was excellent. And also the last cour of Lupin III Part IV which was also good. 

Aokana is a show I’ve seen and consider pretty okay. Also the last part of Code Geass: Akito of the Exiled and the Selector Destructed Wixoss movie. 

Spring 2016 had Re:Zero, Netoge, season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal, High School Fleet, Flying Witch and the second part of Concrete Revolutio an Anime I only very recently became a fan of. That's six very solid shows right there. It also had the 20th Detective Conan film Darkest Nightmare which was good and the movie version of Gundam Thunderbolt December Sky which was very good. And the third Gundam The Origin OVA, the fourth would come out in December. 

Summer 2016 had the second half of Re:Zero season 1 but also the first half of Tales of Zestria which is a great example of how the Fantasy Anime adapted from specific Video Games often feel the least Gamey. 

New Game! was great, Prisma Illya 3wei is as well. 

The separate Anime listed on the database Websites as different Danganronpa 3s should not be watched separately but in the episode order they are placed in on Crunchyroll.  In that form they are The Godfather Part II of Anime and in my opinion even better, a true masterpiece.

For movies Summer 2016 has two of the biggest of all, Your Name and A Silent Voice, both of which are great movies. It also has the Accel World movie which I enjoyed and Pokémon: Volcanion and The Mechanical Marvel which was okay. 

For Pokémon this year was the end of the X and Y Generation which I really like, probably the last Generation of Pokémon I really got into. That also means it’s the start of Sun and Moon which I’ve always found the art style of off putting.  But the Pokémon Generations ONAs were pretty good. 

Fall 2016 is a fascinating season, one of it’s biggest shows I’ve still never watched but conceptually do respect and want to give props to, Yuri On Ice. Another show from that season I know of but haven’t seen is Keijo. Of the six shows from this season I have watched to completion, all are shows I like.  I also recall that the second season of Sound Euphonium aired this season.

What’s special about this season is it’s my first time really following Seasonal Anime as they aired. Earlier in the year I had heard of both Re;Zero and Konosuba and maybe also Erased but didn’t follow them. I had watched Crystal season 3 on Hulu (which was Free with Ads back then) as it aired where I was also following the finishing of SailorStars being uploaded there, but I’ve always compartmentalized Sailor Moon from general seasonal Anime. 

Those six Fall 2016 shows are Izetta The Last Witch, Flip Flappers, ViVid Strike!, Lostorage Incited Wixoss, Occultic;Nine and Magical Girl Raising Project which is the only one I’ll qualify, as a defender of so called “Dark Magical Girl shows’ in general this isn’t one of the best of them but I like some of what it does.  The first two of those are the ones I actively followed at the time.

When talking about 2017's importance I have sometimes mistakenly referred to that Winter as my first time following seasonal Anime.  This is because of three things.  I didn't watch much of Fall 2016 at the time.  I kinda just happened to be following these currently airing shows not registering that this was an Anime Fandom practice I was doing for the first time. And 2017 was my first full Gregorian calendar year following Seasonal Anime. 

This year was the 20th Anniversary of Detective Conan’s Anime just as current year is the show’s 30th. Which is why this year had the Episode One OVA which was an okay way to get the gist of how it started with more modern Animation, but I’d more recommend just watching the early episodes which are currently on Netflix.  

For the show proper 2016 began with two 1 hour TV Original special episodes (804-805) written by the same guy who wrote movie 11 and was pretty fun. The Darkness of the Prefectural Police (810-812) was a fun episode that introduced a new character important to the Rum saga. The Shadow Chasing Amuro (813) was a tie in episode to the movie I mentioned before. The Actress Blogger’s locked room (814-815) is the next appearance of that new character. The suspects are a Passionate Couple (822-823) is a fun episode, one of the rare modern DC episodes I’ve watched 3 times already. Ramen so Good it’s to Die For 2 (827-828) is another fun episode, it has Sera in it. The Unfriendly Girls Band (836-837) is another fun episode I’ve seen 3 times, it’s a K-On reference and builds on some important lore and has one of the most memorable EDs which I suspect Yuki Yuna is A Hero fans will get a kick out of.  If I’ve seen more from 2016 I don’t remember for certain, but those are already more interesting episodes then I was expecting a single year from the Rum era to have when I started writing this. 

And the year ended with the Fate/Grand Order: First Order OVA which was fun. 

Going back to an observation I made at the start, even most Anime from 2016 I hadn’t seen at the time.  Most stuff from the first three seasons I didn’t even know of at the time, for the movies and some shows their Dubs didn’t exist yet, and even for that last season there’s still many I didn't watch till later. 

I got into to Anime during this year watching stuff that wasn't new at the time, or at least wasn't brand new, like Yuru Yuri, Lucky Star, Haruhi, Future Diary, Selector Infected Wixoss and Selector Spread Wixoss, Fate/Zero and Stay Night, and then Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and it’s sequel A’s on Thanksgiving, and possibly some more that I’ve forgotten exactly when I first watched them. And also revisiting some of the Anime I’d already been a fan of (including being the year I watched my favorite Anime Noir Subbed for the first and still only time). I didn’t realize at the time how for some of those Anime this year was their 10th anniversary and are thus turning 20 now. 

So perhaps it’s a little silly to celebrate the Anime that actually aired this year alongside it being the anniversary of my becoming an Otaku. But every time I find out something I watched more recently is from 2016 my brain goes “that makes sense” it’s like this was meant to be the year that got me to go full Weeb. 

There is none Anime stuff from 2016 I like in a similar way. I’m still a Suicide Squad apologist with mixed feelings on both BvS and Rouge One and all the American TV shows I was watching at that time. I may have even still been reading BlackCoatPress books. But Anime became my priority and it’s stuck. 

Top Femme Fatale Anime Girls

The reason for that title and not “Femme Fatales of Anime” or "Anime Femme Fatales” is because I’m not actually limiting this to Animation, it can include Manga, Doujinshi, Visual Novels and other “Anime Style” Games.  I’m writing this intro before I’ve fully finalized the list so don’t take that as a guarantee all of those will be represented.

I’m not including Fujiko Mine because she’s so synonymous with the concept of Femme Fatales in Anime that her inclusion would be a distraction. I'd unavoidably get comments either complaining that anyone but her is number 1, or that making her number 1 was a lazy spineless choice.  Plus I have nothing to say about her that hasn’t already been said.  I’d rather use this list to draw attention to more Niche characters. 

My standards for what makes a Femme Fatale can be at the same time more rigid and more fluid than others.  First of all the meaning I mean here is a literary synonym for a Seductress/Temptress, not women who kill. Noir is my favorite Anime but I don’t consider anyone in it a Femme Fatale.

I also disagree with TVTropes separation of the Femme Fatale from The Vamp (and on the topic of Anime specifically a good chunk of who they call Fille Fatales rather than Femme Fatales) they are the same in my view. Also unlike TVTropes I’m not acknowledging any “rare male example”, I do think it’s theoretically possible but on TVTropes it’s more often just a male character being a Player in a typically male way.   I have already talked about Kaito Ace from the Sailor V Manga but I only considered calling him one in a specific context.  An Otokonoko might make the list, but I doubt it, most Otokonoko characters I’m familiar with are pretty Wholesome. 

But there are still a variety of kinds of characters who fit my definition of a Femme Fatale.  Fujiko is the Catwoman type, but there’s also the Poison Ivy type, the 40s Film Noir type, the classical Biblical Epic type, the literal Succubus type.  You can also be a Heroic Femme Fatale in my view, many certainly are morally ambiguous and sympathetic, so me giving this Label to a character isn’t innately a moral condemnation.  And maybe even some types I would perhaps deem truly unique to Otaku/Shoujo media with no good analogues in Normie media.  

For example an Anime Femme Fatale could theoretically not be offering anything Sexual or Romantic at all.  Moe is in part about understanding that men don’t necessarily need to expect anything from a Pretty Girl to be convinced to do what she wants.  Most Anime Girls use this power for Good rather than Evil though, so I can’t guarantee anyone like that will be on the list.

And that’s enough talking about who’s not on the list. Let’s get started. 

I’m going to put an Asterix on my inclusion of Gigi Andelucia from Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway since in Anime form that story is still incomplete.  People have read the Novels even in English and thus have an idea of how off the mark or spot on I am about this, but I haven’t.  For now though this film gives me mild 40s Film Noir vibes, not aesthetically but in how it’s written.  And so Gigi’s unique place on this list would be as the Anime character most like a Classic 40s Film Noir Femme Fatale.  Again not every character designated the Femme Fatale of a given Film Noir is an entirely bad person. [Update September 2nd 2026: I've seen the second Hathaway movie now and yeah she definitely qualifies to some extent.] 

Nana Hiragi from Talentless Nana.  Really just the first episode where she is a good example about it not being necessary to be Sexual or Romantic at all.

Akane Minegawa from Scum’s Wish. She’s a character who likes Reverse NTRing people just because she can, she's quite fun. 

Riko Mine Arsene Lupin IV from Aria of the Scarlet Ammo and its spin off Aria of The Scarlet Ammo AA.  She’s my favorite character from these shows and a large part of why I watched them to begin with, voiced excellently by Luci Christian. I believe I've talked about this character on this blog before in other contexts.  In the spin off she has a younger protege, I’m not giving her her own entry though. 

Mami Nanami from Rent-A-Girlfriend.  I suppose I have as little to say that hasn’t been said already for her as I do for Fujiko.  But as an unironic Rent-A-Girlfriend enjoyer I wanted to express my solidarity.

Kaede Sakura from Kampfer.  Some might consider it a spoiler for me to list her here, but I don’t care.  She’s great, once she shows her true colors she is very seductive.

Maya Kamiwazumi from Fault!! Service: Aratanaru Rival. She's the best example I can think of right now of being both a Kuudere and a Femme Fatale.  She also fits into the trope of a spurned Lesbian going after the boyfriend of the girl who spurned her, which is a problematic trope but can be done well in my opinion.  I'm optimistic that in the source material for this you can get a true Threesome resolution to this triangle, but I can't know for certain since the game probably isn't available in English.

Sempai from Your Fault a Yuri NTR Doujin by Kazushiro also known as 115990.  She’s a great example of the kind of Femme Fatale that is most commonly found in Yuri.  A compelling combination of traditionally Masculine Assertiveness and Feminine Allure.

Kaori Nanahoshi from another Doujin with a longer more inconsistently translated name, 516668.  Unlike most Reverse NTR doujins this one truly is a gender reversal of what usually happens in a regular NTR in that the villainess Rapes her male target.  Now you may think “if it’s Noncon where does the Seductress stuff come in”, well what’s really devious is she uses those Seduction techniques after she’s already Violated him in order to emotionally confuse and manipulate him. 

Flay Allster from Mobile Suit Gundam Seed has quickly become my number one. This character has an Arc and really isn’t a Femme Fatale yet during the first 10 episodes  She’s a Femme Fatale in a distinctly Shoujo feeling way as a result of a Woman being the lead writer of Gundam Seed giving it a number of Shoujo qualities.  It’s one thing to watch a woman pretend to love a man she’s indifferent to.  But what’s really Toxic and unnerving here is that Flay actually Hates Kira when she starts emotionally seducing him.   One could also make a whole Video Essay about how the Electra Complex is in play. 

Ki Sho Ten Ketsu

First I’ve made this playlist of a number of YT videos about Kishotenketsu, I haven’t actually watched all of them yet but the ones at the start I have.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepidrlF-PrpezIs-mVr3Q0Ls

In this post I’m going to talk about it in a few different ways.

First, as I've already said before, I think the common translation of Ten as “Twist” is unintentionally misleading. And one manifestation of that is how it’s applied to Attack on Titan.  Yes I think even Pause and Select is wrong in trying to argue the Kishotenketsu breakdown of Attack on Titan correlates to the official Season designations of the Anime.

This is largely driven by the confusion of Ten with being a plot twist, because Season 3 revolves around plot twists way more then the first two seasons.

The first 3 seasons were designated three seasons even though they functionally aired as 4 broadcast seasons and have slightly more than enough episodes to theoretically be divided into Five seasons because of the quirks of how it aired. I’m convinced the 5th Broadcast season was branded as the “Final Season” purely for marketing, because the Manga was about to end and they’d committed to adapting the rest of it. 

However, narratively speaking I believe the Ten begins when Reiner becomes the main POV protagonist for a while.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Ten at least when applied to long form stories like this is about the story being very different then it was before.  And that if there is indeed a Plot Twist that causes it, that plot twist isn’t always part of the Ten but can often happen at the end of the Sho.

And one precedent for that is the Evangelion Rebuild films.  

One reason I think some people have trouble accepting the claim that the Three Act Structure isn’t as big in the East is because so many Anime film series are made as Trilogies, but honestly I think that kind of is just the Japanese Film industry mimicking Hollywood. Take the Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Compilation films, they are a trilogy but I feel would clearly have worked much better as four films with the second beginning and ending with the Ramba Ral and Crowely Hamon arc.

And that’s why the Rebuild films are special, they are a true Kishotenketsu Tetralogy.  Evangelion 3.33 feels almost like itself a Reboot, but why everything is so different now is because of what happened at the end of 2.22.

And this also fits how I feel Kishotenkestsu very intentionally applies to the Wachowskis Speed Racer film from 2008.  Basically each of the film’s four races are the culminations of each of the four acts, with the film’s main “Twist” if you can call it that happening alongside the second race.

Like many who are aware of Kishotenketsu I often get annoyed when seeing some Normie YouTuber try to force the Three Act Structure or some other Western Structure derived from it (any proposed structure with an Odd number of parts is clearly just trying to stretch out the Three Act Structure) onto an Anime or Manga.  

However I also admit it’s not entirely wrong.  There are natural things that led to the Three Act Structure that can make it not limited to the West.  But I think the reverse is also true.  One video in that playlist argued Kishotenketsu is a Rhetorical device not a Story Structure, I disagree with the “not” part, or rather would add an “only” after it.  Both the Three Acts Model and Kishotenketsu can be viewed as lenses through which to look at stories that are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  After all most 12 episode Anime are either 4 Acts of 3 episodes each or 3 acts of 4 episodes each.

Still there is a Western Chauvinism I think in how often the Three Act Structure is imposed on Eastern stories rather than the other way around.  So I figured I should try to even that out.  I already mentioned Speed Racer but as an Anime Adaptation it’s certainly not independent of Eastern Influence, rather it shows how the Wachowskis did their research better then a lot of other Hollywood Anime Adaptations. The Cynic Clinic video at the start of my Playlist cites examples of people in Japan seeing Kishotenketsu in Frozen and Little Red Riding Hood. 

JustWrite has a video on how Batman Begins actually follows a Four Act Structure, but a differently defined one then Kishotenketsu.  And yet I can apply a Kishotenkestsu lens to it fairly easily by simply saying its midway point "Twist" is the introduction of The Batman to Gotham City.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace certainly can be broken down into four acts instead of the usual three based on what Planet the main cast is on, Naboo, Tatooine, Coruscant, and Naboo again.  The question is how plausible Kishotenketsu is? It could be in this context the Midway Point Twist is the existence of Darth Maul becoming known to the Jedi. 

But also on the subject of Star Wars, each season of Andor is divided into 4 Arcs of 3 episodes each just like a lot of Anime.

I also think about how Superman The Movie and Superman II are meant to be telling one massive story across two movies and that kind of fits.  First Superman is introduced to the world, then stopping Luthor’s plan is the development, then the introduction of the Super Villains is the Ten and the eventual battle between them and Superman is the Ketsu. 

I recently rewatched It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World and concluded it too can be given a four act breakdown.  The first ends when the race properly starts after the failed negotiation on how to split up the money.  The Intermission breaks up Acts 2 and 3.  And Act four begins with the finding of the money.  

A number of DC and Marvel limited series that get referred to as Graphic Novels were originally published as 4 praters.  The Dark Knight Returns might actually the easiest to apply Kishotenketsu to. 

I added an update to my post about Spin Offs that start with no prior connection to the main cast arguing how they can fit one way of defining Kishotenketsu. And that also got me thinking how Phase One MCU can be viewed as following that kind of Kishotenketsu.  The first Iron Man film is the Ki, Iron Man 2 is the Sho, Thor and Captain America are the Ten and The Avengers is the Ketsu.  

I also got to thinking how one could make a standard Hollywood Trilogy into that by taking a setting or character only in the third film and making a prequel about them placed on the watch order between movies 2 and 3.  For the original Star Wars trilogy I guess the Ewoks would be the best option for that, (and there are Ewok focused Spin Offs but I don’t know where they hypothetically fit on the timeline). [Update: I guess a movie about the Bothans could also work if it also gives screen time to Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma.]  For The Dark Knight Trilogy an origin story for Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman would be the best bet.

Four Koma Manga like Azumanga Daioh are often cited as the perfect way to demonstrate Kishotenketsu on a micro level. But strangely never actually contrasting it to the standard Three Panel structure of American Newspaper Comics like Garfield.  It perhaps says something about my biases that I think the Azumanga Daioh girls in a Three Panel comic would look weird, but I think Four Koma gags with Garfield and Friends could work pretty well.

But I also notice Internet Memes and Web Comics tend to be Four Panels instead of Three (but you have to read them Right to Left unlike a Manga).  Is it possible that is because of how indirectly Japanese Comedy has influenced Internet Humor from very early on via Video Games and Anime and the sillier Godzilla movies?

The most infamous Four Panel Webcomic is arguably Loss, but honestly I’m having trouble even forcing it to fit Kishotenketsu.  It is more like Western Storytelling where the “Twist” happens in the last panel.  That’s not me dissing it, frankly I’m sick of the unfair hate that author has received and honestly I think it's a brilliant piece of wordless purely visual storytelling and the way people have abstracted it to mock it only further proves that.

However what I do think shockingly conforms to Kishotenketsu is a Prequel Meme, the one based on that Padme and Anakin scene from Attack of The Clones, “You’re Joking Right”.  Because I can easily argue that the Ten is the implication that Anakin isn’t Joking. 

I honestly am shocked that much of this wound up being about Star Wars.  Every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in. 

I’ve wondered if maybe Japan also has a more niche Six Act structure given how many OVA series (like Gunbuster, War in The Pocket, Tenchi Muyo and Murder Princess) and Anime Arcs (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and the first arcs of A Certain Magical Index, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sailor Moon SailorStars) I’ve observed play out over exactly 6 episodes (and the School Days Visual Novel is structured as 6 episodes). But then I think about how the Freytag’s Pyramid Five Act structure is just the Three Act structure with a couple extra steps, and suspect these Six Part stories have a similar relationship to Kishotenketsu, with it probably most often being the Sho and the Ten that get an extra episode each. 

That allows the Phase One MCU model to fit even better. I'd already split the Ten into two movies and now I can add The Incredible Hulk to the Sho rather than ignoring it.

Can I make the 6 episode George Lucas Saga fit? Maybe.  The Phantom Menace as an Introduction to everything obviously works, then we have two episodes covering the Clone Wars, then two episodes of following the next generation before Return of The Jedi brings everything together. 

Update February 2026: It seems season one of A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms will be 6 episodes, and episode 3 ended on a Twist. 

Someone on BookTube finally covered George MacDonald's Lilith and I observed from how they described the structure that it kinds of works as KiShoTenKetsu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu61VYRn_yE

I've also remembered once watching a YouTube video that says in the original Rocky the inciting incident happens at the halfway point.

Anime that are more Communist then Hayao Miyazaki

For some reason, there is a narrative that Hayao Miyazaki is the most Leftist creator of Japanese Animation and Manga. The problem is even when Miyazaki was still identifying as a Marxist he was always a Malthusian and that’s mutually exclusive with Marxism. 

This list will still likely be incomplete as my own knowledge of Anime is itself still far from complete, for example I haven’t consumed much of anything from Leji Matsumoto or Osamu Tezuka and they were both known JCP members. 

This is not a ranked list of how good or how Communist they are.  I’m going to start with those that from what I’m aware of have the most external confirmation of the creators Leftist politics and then work down to ones that are arguably just my personal interpretation. I am a Death of the Author advocate so I believe some stories are Communist in spite of Authorial intent.

The Rose of Versailles.  The original Manga was written by Riyoko Ikeda who was a member of the Democratic Youth League of Japan, the youth wing of the Japanese Communist Party. It’s a shame only two of her Manga have ever been Animated.  And I consider it a personal shame that I still haven’t watched Dear Brother as both a Yuri Fan and a Communist.  But I suspect it’s a safe bet that the one about the French Revolution is more explicitly Political. The original 40 episode series is on Retro Crush and Prime Video but has no Dub, a new film version should drop on Netflix with a Dub the day before I post this, but I’m skeptical of the story’s ability to work as a single film.  

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway’s Flash.  This is a film adaptation of the first novel of a trilogy written by original Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tommino who we have on record talking about how he and most Anime creators of his generation were Communists at least in their youth. While Malthusianism also seems like a theme in UC Gundam stories I don’t think Tommino is accepting it as uncritically as Miyazaki does, especially given the themes of Brain Powered.  Hathaway is what I’m putting on this list because for once the narrative is principally on the side of the Revolutionaries rather than the defenders of the Status Quo.  It’s on Netflix.  But it’s not the best entry point to Gundam, it’s best to have at least seen the Mobile Suit Gundam Trilogy and Char’s Counterattack for context, fortunately they’re also on Netflix though the Dub for the Trilogy isn’t on any official streaming site. [Update June 18th: So the Trilogy and CCA are leaving Netflix.  The Trilogy is up on YT now and CCA is on Crunchyroll as "season 2" of the original series but this is still annoying, it was very convenient when I could recommend people to watch this whole saga on the same App.]

Mawaru Penguindrum.  Leftist readings are pretty common for all of Kunihiko Ikuhara’s works, but I think Penguindrum is the most about society as a whole and not more specific forms of oppression. 

Robotics;Notes is a show I’ve often defaulted to as an example of good Leftist Collectivism in Anime. 

Durarara!! Is also a story with a practically Anarchist sense of Community.  But it does at times undermine itself, I mostly wish they hadn’t backed out of how they first depicted the Cops.

Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine episode 7 Music and Revolution.

The Loudly Laundry episode of Princess Principal.

What I’ve seen of the .Hack franchise also lends itself well to Leftist readings, it’s a reminder of the Revolutionary potential the Internet once had, and could have again.

Hugtto Pretty Cure has a really interesting final arc. 

Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya.  No, I’m not joking. 

Anime 2025-2026 was a Mistake

The Introductory post of this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2025/04/anime-year-2025-2026.html

My Anilist Profile.

https://anilist.co/user/KuudereKun888/

And my Social Media

https://c.im/@KuudereKun

Gundam GQuuuuuuX episode 3 was pretty cool.  I suspect the people who got into Yuri Shipping so fast are a bit annoyed by the new male character, but I like him. 

And speaking of Gundam, I followed up much of what I talked about last week by watching Gundam Hathaway on Netflix and then Gundam Unicorn on Hulu.

The first episode of Once Upon A Witch’s Death was pretty good. 

Episode 11 of Loner Life In Another World was good as well. 

Episode 4 of Lazarus was good, but my trigger those sensitive to Sexual Assault/Date Rape scenes.

And I'm already starting to regret quasi committing myself to this project.  I rarely have anything to say after a single episode other than “I watched it and I liked” or “I watched it and decided not to keep watching” and in my charitable nature usually unwilling to say the second option was because it was bad or anything.

The fact is sometimes when a show is currently airing it is just not when I’m in the right mindset to watch it.  I suspect I will finish season 2 of Slime 300 eventually but during episode 2 this week I simply wasn’t in the mood for it. 

Issues like this are why I abandoned my last attempt at a project like this, but that was a few years ago so I thought I could be different this year, but I can’t.  Especially since current shows are not even really the focus of my thinking right now. 

April Anime 2025 Week 3

The Introductory post of this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2025/04/anime-year-2025-2026.html

My Anilist Profile.

https://anilist.co/user/KuudereKun888/

And my Social Media

https://c.im/@KuudereKun

GQuuuuuuX episode 2 documents the point of divergence from the usual UC timeline.  Next episode will be back to the new main cast.

Episode 10 of Loner Life In Another World was good. 

The finale of Ameku M.D. was good.  I’m giving the show as a whole an 8. 

I decided to put Rock Is a Lady’s Modesty on hold during episode 3.  I don’t like its use of CGI and was finding some aspects of it surprisingly dull.

Weird how I’m saying On Hold still when I’ve moved to different Database websites, that language has become the default of how many fans talk in general.  Anilsit and Anime-Planet each use a different term, Paused and Stalled.

Episode 1159 of Detective Conan was a decent episode but I didn’t feel like how the movie tie episodes usually feel. The Detective Conan World Wiki is no longer listing who wrote this episode like they were last week, so maybe what I said last week was mistaken. 

Lazarus episode 3 was great, things are really getting interesting now. 

The season 2 premiere of Slime 300 was pretty fun. 

I won’t always be commenting on what Anime I’ve watched outside of what’s currently airing.  But this week I felt like mentioning how I’ve rewatched YU-NO which still holds up great and done a bunch of Gundam watching.  Rewatched Char’s Counterattack and The Origin and some episodes of some other shows.  And I watched for the first time the 08th MS Team which was phenomenal, and Requiem for Vengeance which I have a few mixed feelings on but is overall pretty good, and the first 3 episodes of 0083 Stardust Memory.

Before that I’d rewatched Str.A.In, 86 and a bunch of Code Geass. 

Update April 21st: Well Ubel Blatt's dub dropped on Amazon's Prime Video but after watching 5 episode the dub for Episode 6 somehow isn't loading, so this has caused an annoyance.

Further Update: That issues was fixed the next day.  After finishing the show I will say it's good but it's not a kind of Anime I'm into that much.  It's an adaptation of a Manga that started in 2004 and so is a throwback to a particularly style of Edgy Anime that was already on the way out when it started.

There are a couple things I find interesting about it.

The Empire being depicted has a Holy Roman Empire structure, I know I'd said that before about War on Geminar but this is even more explicit even using the term Elector.  So it's always a big refreshing when a Medieval Fantasy shows familiarity with more then just England and France.

The main character is clearly a Vampire even though they aren't using the word.  I generally don't like Vampires being thrown into full Fantasy settings, I think they're more interesting as a Secret history in the real world.  But in this case I'm intrigued by them actually throwing back to the old 19th Century Ruthven rules with him being healed by the Moonlight.

April Anime 2025 Week 2

The Introductory post of this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2025/04/anime-year-2025-2026.html

My Anilist Profile.

https://anilist.co/user/KuudereKun888/

And my Social Media

https://c.im/@KuudereKun

The Pilot of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX on PrimeVideo was good, and has a great English Dub Cast as well.  Looks like the part of the movie people were calling Episode 0 is actually going to be  episode 2 next week (Wednesday in Japan but Tuesday in the US).

Episode 9 of Loner Life In Another World was pretty good. 

Aemuk M.D. episode 11 introduced a new Denny’s variation, Bemmy’s spelled with Green Text.

On April 9th I finished Re:Zero season 3, it was great, and it looks like season 4 is gonna be pretty good too.

Rock is A Lady’s Modesty episode 2 was quite amusing. 

Moonrise on Netflix was a pretty decent Sci-Fi story.

The last episode of Guild Receptionist was decent.  I give the show as a whole an 8 out of 10. 

Detective Conan episode 1158 was an okay episode.  I was expecting it to be the tie-in to the new movie since it's the last new episode before the movie releases in Japan, but it didn’t end with an allusion to the film’s events.  However I can tell next week’s 1159 will be since it has the same writer as the movie.

Update: I just watched the first episode of Lazarus rather late on the Adult Swim app, and it looks like the second episode will drop today so I may add another update.  It was pretty entertaining, can't guarantee I'll stick with it but it has a good start.

Update: Episode 2 was also good.  The Suicide Squad comparisons are inevitable, but this this exact story couldn't actually be told in the DC Universe.

Anime from 1995 turn 30 this year.

 I covered a bunch of 95 Anime back in 2020 already.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/07/looking-back-25-years-at-anime-of-1995.html

I've also since developed a thesis that 95 is the beginning of The Bronze Age of Anime.

Stuff from 95 that most reflect it as a year that ushered in an Era would include Wedding Peach as both the launch of OLM into TV Anime and when the Magical Girl Warrior Genre truly starts to be more then just Sailor Moon.

But also Tenchi Universe and Gundam Wing and finally Evangelion.

It's a pretty interesting year to look back on.  And Wedding Peach has gotten some new love thanks to Aishyo.

Katsuyuki Sumisawa is my favorite Sailor Moon Anime Writer

For the 90s Anime I consider him being the writer a more reliable predictor of quality even then Ikuhara being the director.  

That should not be taken as an insult to the other writers, each of the other 4 to write for the first 3 seasons have some episodes I consider great and I haven’t memorized who wrote what as much for SuperS and Stars, but Youji Enokido I can confidently say also never wrote a bad episode.

Sumisawa didn’t only write for Sailor Moon of course and so I will mention some notable facts about what else he wrote when chronologically appropriate, but by no means everything.  Beginning with that he was already working before Sailor Moon, but mostly on shows now forgotten or that the West never got in the first place.

NG Knight Ramune & 40, one of the shows Snake Eye Dreams talked about in their 1990: A Year in Anime video has Sumisawa on the staff. As did a few of the late 80s/early 90s shows on TV Asahi that this wordpress blog post has documented.

https://animetics.net/2014/09/03/timeslot-history-anime-on-tv-asahi-1994-2000/

But one notable show among those he worked on was Dragon Ball Z, he wrote a lot of DBZ episodes, many of them seem to be Anime Original “Filler” episodes including most of the Garlic JR Arc.  

The first Sumisawa episode of Sailor Moon is the 3rd episode, but second in the DiC Localization where it was named Talk Radio, (I use a lot of DiC’s episode titles as shorthand even though that’s usually not the version of the show I’m actually thinking of).  And honestly I would say it's the first good episode of the show, it’s pilot I already reviewed as a weak adaptation of the first Act of the Manga. It's really better to just watch Crystal if you want an Anime version of Usagi’s origin story.  And the second episode really hasn’t aged well.  Talk Radio however feels like the first episode that has much of what 90s Anime Apologists love about the show.  Really there is no reason not to just start with this episode.

The second Sumisawa episode is also the first Ikuhara episode, and one of the episodes DiC didn’t include, so my shorthand name for it is the Smooth Jazz Episode (I didn’t invent calling it something like that though, the Sailor Business Podcast did).  A lot of what’s memorable about this episode is its visual presentation but its script is also solid.

Third is the 9th episode of the show and 6th of the DiC dub where it’s titled Time Bomb.  The gimmick of this episode makes it very fast paced and fun.  And as the only episode that both begins and ends with our Magical Girl team as a Duo it’s in hindsight kind of unintentionally proto-Pretty Cure, especially given how often the Blue PreCures are clearly modeled after Ami Mizuno.

In Japan Ami/Sailor Mercury was always the most popular Senshi as documented by polls in Japanese Anime Magazines.  Why that is I think starts with how Naoko Takeuchi seemingly based Ami on herself more than any of the others.  But as far as the 90s Anime goes I find it notable that while it often Flanderizes her character she does also have some stand out moments and during this early period those often come from Katsuyuki Sumisawa episodes.  And that starts with him writing our second impression of Ami in this episode after episode 8 was again a weak adaptation of its Manga/Crystal counterpart.

Next is Cruise Blues the penultimate episode of the Jadite arc and what happens in it is arguably why the next episode was his last.  Overall this is actually the episode I have the least thoughts on so far, but it is good. 

He only wrote two episodes during the Nephrite Arc, which are coincidentally also the two episodes Ikuhara directed during that arc.  An Unnatural Phenomena is neat in how you can call it a plot that could've been used for Poison Ivy, and it’s DiC version was adapted to an Audio Cassette which is oddly fun to listen to. 

But An Animated Mess is the big one off stand out of this arc. Its Yuri subtext is thick which is amusing given these guest characters are essentially based on actual women on Sailor Moon’s animation staff, were Sumisawa and Ikuhara shipping their co-workers?   Returning to an earlier point both these episodes have what I think are Ami’s most stand out moments from the Nephrite arc, including her standing on Nephrite’s car in this one.

Sumisawa’s first contribution to the Rainbow Crystal Arc is Mercury’s Mental Match, perhaps the first real Ami spotlight episode since her introduction.  The two episodes featuring “Greg” are among the few I’ve never watched the VizDub versions of due to who voiced “Greg”.  But that was a decision I made back when I underestimated how many performances from that frustrating individual I was already a fan of.  But regardless of how you choose to watch it it’s a good episode.

Kitty Chaos is the last Sumisawa and Ikuhara collaboration until Sailor Moon S.  It’s in general one of the most memorable and talked about episodes, and perhaps oddly influential given how I can’t help but wonder if Rhett Butler inspired aspects of The Cat Returns?

Sumisawa also wrote for Yu Yu Hakushu starting with episode 5 which aired the same day in Japan as Kitty Chaos, November 7th 1992, Yu Yu Hakushu aired at 18:30 JST and Sailor Moon at 19:00 JST, but not on the same channel it seems.  They also share Sukehiro Tomita as a writer.  Their Manga Authors being married makes this sharing of writers even more interesting, were they invited to the wedding?

A Crystal Clear Destiny and A Reluctant Princess are a two parter and the first time Sumisaya is writing episodes that definitely can’t be considered Filler by any metric.  They are equivalent to Acts 8 and 9 of the Manga and Crystal but how things play out are dramatically different.  And both are great, both of these versions of this point in the story can coexist as equally valid.

And one of my arguments against the concept of Continuity LockOut is that I know from the Sailor Business Podcast that the first of these was the first episode of the show watched by one fan and she loved it.  It’s an episode that at face value doesn’t seem like a good jumping on point but it didn’t matter, it was Good and that’s what mattered.

Ski Bunny Blues is the first of these episodes that I barely remember, as bad as that sounds I have no bad memories of it, I probably just haven’t rewatched it recently enough, I often skip Rei centric episodes.  I do think this brief sub era of the show is the weakest of the first series, returning to an episodic format after the big climatic reveals of the last two episodes was pretty awkward since the Manga is already setting up the finale, but Gems were still produced here, not all of them being Sumisawa ones, (the two episodes directed by Kazuisa Takenouchi are also standouts).

Tuxedo Unmasked is the other “Greg” episode and it too is great both as a time to shine for Ami and the first time the 90s Anime’s take on Evil Endymion really worked.  And it’s Sumisawa’s last episode for the original series.

For the Makai Tree Arc of which I am a notable apologist, Shigeru Yanagawa was the main writer of its main plot, but perhaps the second most important writer of the Arc is Sumisawa.  First he wrote the second episode which restores the memories of the Inner Senshi and helps set the new Status Quo quite well.    Then he wrote the Venus and Rei centric episodes where they awaken new powers,  Kindergarten Chaos is one of my personal favorite episodes, this is when the 90s Anime finally finds its footing with its take on Minako.  And then Detention Doldrums is very good at both being fairly stand alone and setting up that the following two episodes will finish the Arc.

The Black Moon Saga I love in Crystal and mostly hate in the 90s Anime, this is where my sympathy for Manga Purists is at its strongest.  Thing is, all the episodes of this saga I do consider good in-spite of how the main plot was messed up are the ones Sumisawa wrote. The two Ikuhara directed are very watchable and I understand why one of them is among some people’s favorites, but for me they are Mid at best.

I’m not even gonna cover all of Sumisawa’s Black Moon Saga episodes.

Sailor Mercury Moving On is the last Ami spotlight episode Sumisawa wrote and is thus the Capstone of a thesis I presented earlier.  I don’t think the Ami episodes of S or Stars or even SuperS are bad or anything, but they are mostly just elaborating on what was in the source material.  Thing about this Ami episode is it’s plot was remade as a sub-plot of the Summer 1994 Sailor Moon Musical though there reworked into the Death Busters era, which in turn was reworked a few years later into the first Last Dracul Musical which I really love.  If I oversaw my own remake of the Makai Tree Arc I would replace the bad Babysitting episode with a remake of this episode.

Enemies No More is one of the few where I also want to say the English Translation of the Japanese Title “Battle of the Flames of Love! Mars vs Koan”. This one is definitely not just good for a Black Moon Saga episode but one of the absolute best of all 200 episodes of the show, a must watch for those who want to understand why the 90s Anime version is good for more than just goofy filler.  I already talked about it on my Theology Blog.

No Thanks, Nurse Venus! Is hilarious and the best episode of the Esmeraude arc.  Brotherly Love is a good send off for a number of characters.  Follow The Leader is the recap episode that technically ends Sailor Moon R and I note it here only because watching it’s old Dub on Toonami is one of my earliest Sailor Moon memories. 

Driving Dangerously! Is the proper introduction of HaruMi and the final Sumisawa and Ikuhara collaboration, and it’s great, Iconic, legendary.

Birthday Blues! Is the two parter that ends the first Cour of Sailor Moon S which I have specifically fond memories of renting on VHS (where it shared a tape with a Venus episode Enokido wrote) and I’ve watched it’s modern VizDub version, I think it holds up well. 

Art Appreciation is one I don’t remember a whole lot but it is pretty important to the second Arc of S. 

It's in the Cards is the last episode of Sailor Moon that Sumisawa wrote, and it may not be a perfect Swan Song but it’s pretty good.

Between those two episodes Macross 7 started which two Sailor Moon writers wrote for, Sukehiro Tomita as the head writer and Sumisawa.  It also featured Oohashi Yukiyoshi who wrote with Tomita for Wedding Peach and then a lot of really good Pokémon episodes.

Katsuyuki Sumisawa spent 95 and early 96 as the head writer of Gundam Wing, which would become most Americans’ introduction to Gundam.

He also wrote a bunch of episodes of Cutey Honey Flash which took over Sailor Moon’s timeslot when it ended.  When I watched it I didn't keep track of who wrote which episodes but most episodes were pretty good, I liked it’s second Arc the best.

Sumisawa wrote 18 of the first 26 episodes of Corrector Yui in 1999, episode 17 specifically reminded me of Enemies No More.

He wrote a lot of Inuyasha episodes I just learned.

He also wrote the screenplays for Gundam The Origin which I have mixed feelings on.

And the first 5 and 7th episodes of Yashahime which I did watch, so it seems he’s still got it though I haven't seen most modern shows he’s worked on.

Septimal Anniversaries of Fall 2017 Anime

Well it’s the Final Season of this 2017 Septimal Anniversary series.  

For continuing shows there was of course the second cour of Fate/Apocrypha which I still love.

Animegataris I remember fondly, it's been awhile since we’ve had a fully Meta Anime like that.

The second season of Yuki Yuna Is A Hero and the TV Anime version of Washio Sumi were both great..

Code:Realize - Guardian of Rebirth was a show I watched for its Shadowmen relevance but hasn’t stuck with me much, wouldn’t say anything was Bad about it though.

And that’s actually it for stuff I watched to completion at the time.  At least two other shows I started back then but didn’t complete till later.

A Sister’s All You Need I’ve actually become more fond of over time, though I still wish the “little brother” character was Trans Feminine instead of what they actually went with.

Kino’s Journey The Beautiful World. I found this show a perfectly adequate reboot but I definitely prefer the Aesthetic of the classic version even though I have never properly watched it.

Two shows I watched later are King’s Game which I do not recommend, and Dies Irae which I can’t particularly recommend either but at least that one I don't regret watching.

Two shows I’ve dropped from this season are ShoBitch and Recovery of an MMO Junkie.  What the appeal of the latter was supposed to be is done better by the 2016 show And you thought there is never a girl online? Aka Netoge, as well as 2023’s My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999.

One of the Gundam The Origin OVAs came out this season, I still have mixed feelings on that series.

For movies we got the first Heaven’s Feel film and the first Girls und Panzer Das Finale film which are both great.  As well as Gundam Thunderbolt Bandit Flower which I didn’t like.  I did love December Sky which is from 2016 but was probably 2017 when I first watched it. 

And for Specials 2017 ended with Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom which is weird and I’m not sure what’s going on in it since I don’t play Grand Order.  It’s certainly well animated with neat moments.

Are Giant Robot Anime about Giant Robots?

So a number of weeks ago I watched a YouTube Video from the channel The Bellam called Anime Cryptids that begins with the author talking about hearing people praise a given Mecha Anime, most often Evangelion, for being a Mecha Anime that “isn’t about the Robot”, and then goes on to explain how no Mecha Anime is actually about the Robot, especially not Gundam.  

And yet to me the obvious response to this annoying type of Evangelion fan should be “what do you mean Evangelion isn’t about the Robot?”  If anything Eva is more about the Robot then Gundam since in Eva the Robot is actually a character with sentience of its own, but mostly that point is key to why Eva should be compared to Super Robot shows like Mazinger Z rather than Real Robot shows.

Still I find it amusing that to both sides of the debate in that video it’s treated as a good thing for a show to not actually be about the Robot.  I feel like especially in shows that are named after the Robot that should not be the case, it should never be a good thing for a show to be named in-correctly.

Clearly we are dealing with different people prioritizing different senses of what a show is “about”.  This video’s argument for Gundam not being about the Robot is the abstract philosophical themes of the overarching metanarrative of the Gundam Franchise. On that level no piece of Genre fiction is actually about the premise of it’s Genre, but no one feels the need to defend the integrity of their favorite Batman story by explaining how it isn’t actually about the Billionaire dressing up like a Bat to fight crime.

The author of this video clearly strongly feels only someone who hasn’t actually seen Gundam would think it is actually about the Gundam, but I’m not so sure.  I explained above one reason for viewing Gundam as less about the Robot the Evangelion.  But on the other hand Gundam feels more structurally built around the Mecha battles then Eva does.  Also the Plot of the original Gundam is explicitly that the introduction of the Gundam near single handedly changed the tide of the war.

And when it's framed specifically as focusing on the Characters rather then the Mechs I feel like "why is that even a contrast?", obviously the Characters involved in piloting and maintaining the Mecha will be very prominent in a show about a Mecha  And again in some the Mecha is itself a Sapient entity and thus a Character..  But it would be really weird if the Main Characters the show focuses had nothing to do with the Mecha it's named after.

Now I have to admit I did not initially respond to this video with the strong disagreement I’m expressing here. I initially left a comment saying something like “Robotics;Notes is actually about the Robot and that’s why I like it”.  But why did I feel that way?  At the time I would not have been able to explain myself and the counterargument that it's Robot doesn’t even exist yet for most of the show could easily have been thrown in my face.

It feels more narratively about the Robot then a lot of other Mecha shows because building the Robot is explicitly the Goal of the main protagonists, as an end unto itself not merely as a tool to achieve some other goal.  The build up of the Evil Conspiracy they will wind up having to thwart is mostly treated as a background plot till the final stretch of episodes.  But I guess even then the creator of that YouTube video could argue the Robot is actually just a symbol of something else like Communism maybe, I am a Communist who loves the show in part for it's Collectivist ethos.

So I guess the answer to the question is both Yes and No.

Some more Anime Writers

So there are some Anime Writers I've taken note of now that I don't think I've spotlighted on this Blog before.  For all of them I still haven't seen everything they've written.

Code Geass was for a long time my second favorite Anime, and it still securely has a place in my top 10, and since it's an Anime Original I figured I should take a look at it's writers.

Ichiro Okouchi was probably the head writer of Code Geass, more recently he was the head writer on Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury.  He wrote 5 episodes of RahXephon and 10 episodes of Angelic Layer and Princess Principial.  He also wrote much of Lupin III Part V which seems to be most people's favorite Lupin project of the last decade.  Two things he's written for I haven't watched yet but which are notable are Lupin Zero and Kabenari of The Iron Fortress.

Another notable writer for Code Geass was Hiroyuki Yoshino, he also wrote the Anime for My-Hime and My-Otome, and some of the notable Anime original content for Raildex like the Miracle of The Endymion movie and much of the Febri arc.  He has the Series Composition credit for Izetta: The Last Witch but no individual episodes.  He's written a lot of stuff I still haven't seen yet but might in the future.

Another key writer on Witch From Mercury was Yasuhiro Nakanishi who was also a lead writer on My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at lv999 probably the most underrated RomCom Anime of 2023 and an upcoming Isekai called No Longer Allowed In Another World.  Also Kaguya-Sama Love Is War but I don't know how much Anime Original Content that series even has.

Shakespearean Anime

I’m going to list these by how Shakespearean they are, not how much I generally like them.  They are all stuff I recommend.

Romeo x Juliette

This Anime is not an animated staging of the Play, in fact it’s far from the only Shakespearean Play this Anime is drawing on.  It uses lots of random quotes and vaguely Shakespearean language.  But for the specifics of other plays it’s story could be compared to the first that comes to mind is Juliette being put in a Hamlet situation, however Romeo is arguably in a Prince Hal situation.  The presence of a Senate can remind one of the Roman Plays.

I’m not the biggest fan of how it ends, but that only affects the last 2 out of 24 episodes.

Requiem of The Rose King.

For this one I recommend the Manga more so then the Anime, in fact I was originally very harsh on it’s 2022 Anime but I gave it a second chance just recently and while the pacing of the early episodes still bugs me it eventually either gets better or I got used to it.

It’s based on the Henry VI plays and Richard III, but again not a direct adaptation.  Its starting premise is reimagining Richard’s deformity as being Intersex and deconstructing his popular demonization.  

The tells that it is still partly filtered through Shakespeare are things like William of Suffolk having been Margaret of Anjou’s Lover rather than Beaufort (the Beauforts aren’t mentioned at all).  And its use of Joan of Arc.

First of all the name itself, this is the only Anime that says “Joan of Arc” rather than ”Jeanne d’Arc”, there is a lot of Jeanne d'Arc in Anime and usually even the English Dubs keep that more properly French Pronunciation.

However, on the subject of Joan, there is one cut the Anime made from the manga I do still have to complain about.  Having Joan’s ghost haunt Richard feels a lot more random when they’ve removed the reference to it being Richard of York who burned her at the stake.  And that itself is a deviation from the history that comes directly from Shakespeare, every other fictionalization of Jeanne doesn’t mention York because they know he didn’t come to France till years later.

This is a Shoujo Anime, where Richard has a pretty large Pansexual Harem.

Now it is still Problematic, not by ever endorsing any Transphobia (or whatever you call Bigotry against Cis Intersex people) towards Richard, but in its Internalized Misogyny.  The only Female identifying characters who aren’t ever vilified are Anne Nevill and Elizabeth of York.

Now I really like this take on Margaret of Anjou, she can be read as a manifestation of Internalized Misogyny even more potent than Cersei Lannister.  I could take or leave its handling of Elizabeth Woodville.  But what bugs me is the decision to slander even Catherine of Valois to explain Henry VI’s trauma, I happen to really like the historical Catherine.

Code Geass: Lelouch of The Rebellion.

This show gives me Shakespearean vibes more so than any objective reason to say it was definitely influenced by the Bard.

Death Note is similar to Richard III in a very different way from Requiem, rather it’s like how House of Cards is compared to Richard III in how it kind of makes the audience an accomplice to Light.

Gundam The Witch from Mercury of course draws on The Tempest as much as it does Utena.

And that’s it, there’s kind of shockingly little of Shakespeare in Anime.

There are random references here and there, a movie with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as it's subtitle but no actual connection to that play I could notice.  Shakespeare is himself is a character in Fate/Apocrypha but he doesn't amount to much.

It definitely gets me to thinking how I wish there was more.  What unique takes on Shakespeare could only Anime do?

Henry V should be adapted as a Mecha Anime since it is the Shakespeare Play most about War, and at least can be interpreted as Anti-War.  Other plays have battles but they're just plot points, in the Henry VI plays they only serve to explain why who's in control has changed.  In Troilus and Cressida the Trojan War is a framing device but what its actually about is Netorare.

I'm not even joking, I totally think PoRo should make an adaptation of Troilus and Cressida.  Of course it's not the only Shakespeare play with NTR, given the abstract nature of how NTR Hentai can work I'd say it would count to have Richard III seduce Anne Neville on her dead Husband's Coffin.

And remember I have in older posts quoted Much Ado About Nothing to demonstrate that the basic concept of the Tsundere is nothing new, (I suppose I should acknowledge that I got that from TVTropes before Hbomberguy comes after me).  So imagine having Beatrice played by an Anime Voice actress with experience voicing Tsunderes interpreting the character through that lens?

Update May 2024: I really should included Fate/Zero on the same grounds I did Code Geas but even stronger.  

Spoiler Alert

A particularly potent example would be how Lancer's dying words in episode 16 give off strong Mercutio vibes.

Update April 16th 2025: I just watched Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team and it has a Romeo and Juliet element to it.

Update March 2026: Mamoru Hosoda's newest film Scarlet is kind of a take on Hamlett. 

Anime Recommendations for Inklings.

Anime is such a vast and diverse medium that I truly believe it has something for everyone even though a lot of it will struggle to appeal outside the specific subculture that created it.  So one recurring theme of this Blog is me as a person who was once a more normal western Nerd with a wide range of interests for a long time before Anime took over my brain appointing myself as an expert recommender.  And of course one of my top Western Nerdy interests is J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Now if any long time followers of this blog exist you may think I’ve already covered Tolkien and Lewis like Anime in various ways, but the truth is the prior examples of one or both of them and Anime coming up in the same post were more the other way around if anything.  In this post I want to focus on Anime that I think could have appealed to Tolkien and Lewis themselves if they were still around, not merely fans who like their work but also a lot of stuff very unlike them.

So for example while I’ve made a few posts on why Fantasy Anime even at its most Generic and Gamerfied would appeal to someone whose tastes in the Genre were shaped by them more then the slew of GOT wannabes that western “Prestige” television spewed out in the 2010s.  I am still not insane enough to think either of them would like a show that’s basically literally about being in a Video Game.

Maquia and Frieren are the top two Fantasy Anime I would truly call Tolkienesque.  Maybe Grimoire of Zero and Dawn of The Witch could fit in.  Something that actually qualifies as Isekai would have a better shot with Lewis then Tolkien but not most modern Isekai.  Lewis and Tolkien’s different views on Allegory would have me recommending something like Princess Tutu or an Ikuhara show to Lewis way before Tolkien.  The third Pokémon movie Spell of The Unown might be able to appeal to both.

Also Tolkien's anxieties about Technology and Nature make him a bit of a kindred spirit with Miyazaki but that's not something people needed me to learn about, there's already a YouTube Video Essay on it.  I have also already stated that the ending of Nausicaa counts as a Eucatastrophe, also an observation I didn't make on my own.

However I want to remind people that Tolkien was capable of enjoying more kinds of fiction than just the genre he's most well known for writing.  

For example I was intrigued when I learned that Tolkien was a fan of Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End.  Now the first Anime that I would recommend to any Clarke fan is the Gundam franchise, the Childhood’s End influence is there right form the original Mobile Suit Gundam, I often feel like I’m the only western fan who notices that the term Newtype itself is basically a Childhood’s End reference.  However I feel the best Gundam in many ways including as a Clarke homage is Gundam 00, now 00 like a lot of non UC Gundam Anime in my opinion struggles in its early episodes. I was lucky I caught Gundam 00 randomly in the middle of season 1 on the SciFi channel.  (The Witch From Mercury finally avoided this problem by just making its Pilot a remake of Utena’s pilot).

Heck I’m gonna leave Anime for a second to mention how I see a lot of thematic similarities between Tolkien and the works of 19th Century French Novelist Paul Feval.  They are most apparent in The Companions of The Treasure the 6th and in my headcanon last Volume of The Blackcoats saga, a Tolkien fan reading it will be reminded of a number of things.  Part of it might be how Feval was also a Roman Catholic seemingly specifically to be contrarian (it wasn’t rare in his nation like it was Tolkien but was among those writing serialized novels for newspapers).

Anime that reminds me of Paul Feval are also something I’ve already talked about on this blog.  But which ones do so in specifically a way that speaks to why I compare Feval to Tolkien?  Well I suspect Princess Principal may exist at exactly the right crossroads for that.

Since Tolkien was a Linguist first and foremost he might have been amused by some of those Detective Conan episodes that play on language for a key clue.  Like episode 651 which used differences between the Kansai and Kanto dialects of Japanese.  Or that subplot from the latter part of the Clash and Red and Black where Conan used a sort of reverse Shiboleth.  

Thing is I have no idea if Tolkien ever had any interest in Detective Fiction as a genre.  Lewis did make a Sherlock Holmes reference once and I will definitely recommend Detective Conan aka Case Closed to any Holmes fan, it’s a way better modern reimagining then what the BBC and Hollywood have given us in the last 20 years.

Given the interest Tolkien seemed to have in the idea of Cursed objects that kind of Doom their possessor I’m almost inclined to wonder if even Death Note would have an appeal.

Update February 10th: I recently learned about both Tolkien and Lewis being fans of Voyage to Arcturus thanks to the Media Death Cult youtube channel.  I'm sure there are a number of Anime you could compare to Arcturus but they aren't on the tip of my tong right now.

Update November 18th 2025: Narnia is the obvious C.W. Lewis reference for discussing Isekai, but  when I watch one of the rare Isekai that actually at first tries to have the protagonist communicate with the residents of the new world through a language barrier instead of immediately ignoring or handwaving that issue, I immediately think of Out of The Silent Planet when Ransom first meets Hyoi and begins learning the Hross language.   I wish I could remember which Isekai those were off the top of my head, it kinda happen in YU-NO which doesn't become an Isekai till episode 18.

I remember reading once about how the climax of Peralandra is compared to The Lord of The Rings because they both involved a confrontation in a subterranean cavern where the villain winds up falling into lava.  And today as I rewatched my favorite Anime Noir I realized how it's final confrontation can also be described the same way.

Update March 2024: And ya know what that also applies to the ending of Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel too.

Update August 9th 2026: I feel like adding that The Ribbon Hero has scenes that feel like what an Anime adaptation of The Fall of Gondolin could look like.

Extra Anime Update

I didn’t think I’d be making the next update this quickly, but a lot of developments happened pretty fast after I posted the last one.

But first let me mention some things I should have mentioned last time.  On the subject of watching older Anime I’d watched Scrapped Princess, Fuuka and the Wiseman’s Pupil Isekai, and all of the Danganronpa Anime.  And the subject of things I waited for the Dubs I should have included Lupin III vs Cat’s Eye and Lupin Zero

Lupin III vs Cat’s Eye has dropped and I was a bit disappointed, this CG Animation style didn’t work with these character designs, and many aspects of the plot I found frustrating.  But it has increased my interest in eventually trying to watch the original Cat’s Eye, but I’m getting too busy with current Anime right now.

I decided to finish the first season of Fruit of Evolution and start season 2, it’s a fun show.

Then the Dub for Gundam Witch From Mercury started with no warning, I was caught completely off guard.  It started with episode 0 so the show proper won’t begin till the first Sunday of February, the same day the new PreCure should start.

At any rate for the time being I’ll have at least one new Anime to watch every day or the week.

Spin-Off shows waiting for seaosn 2 to bring in older characters

This is a Strategy for Spin Off building that I've noticed the existence of recently in fairly recent stuff, maybe it always existed?

But some people don't like it, or they don't like the second half of it.

Obviously I feel like I have to start with The Mandalorian since that's the first time I noticed this approach being a thing, but it may not actually be chronologically first one this post covers.  I've come to hate talking about Star Wars in the current climate of the internet, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

The Mandalorian season 1 features no characters we already knew, not even minor characters, it's always featuring Star Wars stuff, but while introducing new characters and usually new locations.  Season 2 then has Mando meet characters from Clone Wars and even the Original Trilogy.

This approach worked because if Mando was sharing screen time with older legacy characters right from the start their shadow could have made it difficult for him or the other new characters to make their mark.  But once they're established it's then cool to see these new characters we've come to like meet other characters we like.

But now I have to address what I said above.  There is a certain type of aggressively anti-fanservice fan among those who make YouTube Videos that liked the independence of season 1 and felt season 2's bringing in the older characters was chickening out on that.  And I feel like you're not really a Star Wars fan if you're so damn hostile to seeing Star Wars characters in a Star Wars show.  I'm a fan of Star Wars because it has characters I like, not vauge late 70s Sci-Fi aesthetics.

Mando season 2 is still principally about Mando, none of the other characters detract from that but are  there to serve Mando and Grogu's story.  But JustWrite in his Andor video said season 2 was still good but it feels like the story was built around enabling all these cameos and crossovers.  And I say so what, every story is written to do what the writers want it to do, which may or may not also be what the fans want.

I have mixed feelings on Andor, I feel it is not remotely the bold and brave political manifesto so many shallow online leftists are pretending it is, but I did enjoy it more then I expected to, which is frankly at all.  However JustWrite's praise of the show's avoidance of Fan Service, even noting the lack of Aliens, I can't agree with.  Because for me that just makes this story feel like any other shallow YA Dystopia from the early 2010s barely even wearing Star Wars clothing.

I suspect Andor when it gets a season 2 will also follow the formula I'm talking about here.  Now it's technically not because it's main/title character is a prior established character, but Cassian Andor in Rogue One was such a bland blank slate generic cishet male hardened solider archetype that this show was effectively building a new character.  In a way it hurts Andor's status as a prequel to a prequel as I'm wondering where this personality is going to disappear to, but whatever.  Now that he's signed up to the Rebellion I predict season 2 will inevitably bring in more characters we've seen before, even if they're mostly characters from prior Disney Star Wars, both Solo and Obi-Won featured Proto Rebel groups who could play a role, and most of the cast of Rebels have Live Action actors now thanks to Ahsoka.  I hope Disney has the guts to bring back CGI Leia and Tarkin.

But it's time to finally move this discussion outside of Star Wars.

Disney had actually done this before with Milo Murphy's Law, in season 1 it's connections to Phineas and Ferb are just occasional in-jokes until the very end, then they do the big crossover and former P&F characters become a more regular presence in season 2.  And it worked out great, I'm still annoyed at the lack of a 3rd season.

I was in fact already noticing this about Mando years ago and back when Pennyworth only had 1 season I was hoping it'd do the same.  But it's a Batman prequel way to far in the past to really feature any more then who they did and where the show did wind up going is mostly fine, I feel it's underrated in fact, it's a better fictional depiction of Fascism then any Star Wars has ever been.

But I'm mostly a Weeb now and so the rest of this post shall be about Anime.

The principal Anime example of this approach is Lostorage incited Wixoss.   For the first 9 episodes I didn't even think it was actually in continuity with the original Mari Okada written Wixoss saga with it's very different rules and everything.  Episode 10 however establishes that one of the most minor notable characters in this show is also one of the most minor notable characters from Selector infected Wixoss.  But it's a subplot that doesn't really impact the resolution.

That show's second season Lostorage conflated Wixoss is then about bringing the Lostorage cast and the original cast together.  So I entered it very hyped and do like it over all, but I don't feel like I can praise it's execution of this approach as much.  Now the thing is in the rules of good writing people like JustWrite base their career on this season 2 crossover may well qualify as more "organic" then Mandalorian Season 2, but Organic vs Contrived is not a dichotomy that concerns me.

I first of all simply feel that basically doubling the cast of this show for season 2 kind of made it need more then just 12 episodes.  This is after all the first show where the rules for the new version of the Selector Battles aren't even partially set up in the first episode.

Now the character who was very minor in all previous shows becoming the Main Character for the Avenger Assembling is itself probably the best part of how they approached it, and this character being a Kuudere of sorts makes her very appealing to me personally.

But I also can't help but feel like I'd have preferred the only additional OG Wixoss character to be added was Akira Aoi, or at least gave her a lot more of the focus.  Akira was the only major character of the original who's story felt incomplete, plus her specific history with the character serving as the glue connecting these stories fits perfectly.  But instead Conflated winds up effectively regressing her Spread development and using her mostly as a punching bag, very mean-spiritedly.  I like Akira and one of the things I like about Anime is it not being as Hostile by default to her personality type as western Nerd media often is. Conflated's opinion of Akira seems like what a western Nerd's would be, and it's shockingly not the only time Conflated does something that feels more western.

There is a plotline in the latter half where the villain manipulates the main protagonists of the prior shows into fighting each other, and it so annoyingly reminds me of how every DC or Marvel Superhero crossover has to feature them fighting each other for some dumb reason first.  And I know this probably isn't the only Anime to do this, it's maybe even in Anime I've watched before, but in a show that I'm thinking of as tangentially related to the Magical Girl Genre it feels wrong.  As a fan of both Batman and Superman I understand why those characters would sometimes come to blows, but as fan of these Anime protagonists and others like them I know them jumping into a fight without even trying to talk first is really out of character.  And the thing is this franchise has built in reasons for people who aren't enemies to still battle each other, they didn't need to do this trope to get this fan service, they chose to.

But I also feel Conflated should not have included Yuzuki if they were going to be afraid to even acknowledge the existence of Kazuki.  My personal headcannon for what happens after the end of Spread/Destructed is a Yuzuki/Kazuki/Hanayo threesome.  This show wants to neither confirm or contradict any shippers on that triangle to appease them while not grossing out whatever normie audience the show has.  But to me Yuzuki simply isn't Yuzuki if that is never on her mind.

Basically the difference between Conflated and Mando season 2 is that Mando didn't turn the entire Original Trilogy Cast into new main cast members.

There is actually a third Wixoss show now but I haven't watched it yet, I will probably give it a try eventually.

Another Anime that does this to a lesser extent is Magia Record.  The original Madoka cast have a handful of cameos in season 1, but season 2 is where they team up with the new cast, and then they're mostly out again for season 3.  Magia Record was fine but I'd already talked about why Madoka EU stories the way they tend to be handled have a limited appeal to me.

Update February 2023: Season two of House of the Dragon can't do this in terms of specific characters, but in a sense the Starks finally entering the drama will have a similar effect.  Having no Starks in season 1 is part of what helped it establish it's own identity, but now that the Dance has started the North is going to have to play some role.

Update April 2025: After watching more of Zeta Gundam I noticed it kinda fits, the first Cour is mostly focused on the new characters but then in the second Cour in brings in Amuro.

It also hit me recently how what I'm talking about happens to fit how the Kishotenketsu story structure is sometimes defined.  The Ki is the original story that creates the universe, the Sho is the Sequel or Sequels that develop it more still following.  The Ten is a new story in the same universe following mostly new characters introducing new aspects of it.  And then the Ketsu is the Crossover.

One issue with Kishotenketsu discourse is the translation of Ten as twist, it's not really wrong but the fact that so many westerners learning about it first and foremost think of a Plot Twist like "I am your father" or an M Night Shyamalan film.  But the point of Ten is more that it's introducing something new, a change to the status quo or a new perspective or indeed it could function as the story temporary staring a different cast of characters.

This changes my perspective on the Lostorage Wixoss situation, a lot of my criticisms remain but I now understand more why they didn't feel the Lostorage character needed equally as many seasons on their own.

Eucatastrophe in Anime

Eucatastrophe is a literary term J.R.R. Tolkien invented for an ending that is more than just a standard Happy Ending.  I’ll copy/paste a more detailed explanation from a Tolkien Wiki.

Eucatastrophe is a neologism coined by Tolkien from Greek ευ- "good" and καταστροφή "destruction".

"I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives – if the story has literary 'truth' on the second plane (....) – that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest 'eucatastrophe' possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love."

― Letter 89

In his On Fairy-Stories Tolkien describes eucatastrophe further:

"But the 'consolation' of fairy-tales has another aspect than the imaginative satisfaction of ancient desires. Far more important is the Consolation of the Happy Ending. Almost I would venture to assert that all complete fairy-stories must have it. At least I would say that Tragedy is the true form of Drama, its highest function; but the opposite is true of Fairy-story. Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite — I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function.

The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially 'escapist', nor 'fugitive'. In its fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.

It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the “turn” comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art, and having a peculiar quality."

― On Fairy-Stories

He sees it in The Gospel and in many “Fairy Stories” but said it never happened in the “modern” novel.  "Modern" when he was writing would have included Victorian Era novels.  I should note that I think it’s safe to assume he hadn’t read any of the French Novels translated by BlackCoatPress.  Because I do think some of Paul Feval’s novels may have them.

Talking about what potentially counts as Eucatastrophes in modern fictional media like Movies and TV Shows and Video Games in Tolkien and Lewis Facebook groups has revealed that what does and doesn’t qualify can be quite debatable.  I’m inclined to define it fairly strictly since Tolkien said they are unheard of in any modern novels he was aware of.

I watched a YouTube video attempting to explain what distinguishes a Eucatastrophe from a Deus Ex Machina and I really feel they got it wrong.  Especially in how they said Peter Jackson improved what happened in the Crack of Doom, I am a Jackson apologist, but on that one NO the Book’s version is still a truer Eucatastrophe.

To me the suddenness of the Eucatastrophe is vital, it seems like Evil’s about to prevail, like it pretty much already has, then BAM! something unexpected happens.  That’s why I kind of feel Jurassic Park has the best Eucatastrophe of anything I’ve seen in a Hollywood movie.  But the end of Final Fantasy VII could perhaps also work depending on how you interpret what actually happened there.

What makes a Eucatastrophe still not a Deus Ex Machina in the literary sense (one certainly can be in a theologically literal sense, like maybe the end of Raiders of The Lost Ark), is that understanding how this resolution was properly set up requires paying attention to the themes and morals of the story rather than the technical mechanics of what was happening.  Good doesn’t prevail because everything went according to some brilliant plan, or because the hero won a fight, in fact the villains should win the fight.

Proper Eucatastrophes are rare in every medium, but this post is about how I feel Anime is more prone to them then Hollywood is.  But I had to cover some non Anime stuff first to provide context for what it means and how I personally view it.

And because I'll be talking about stuff a bit more Niche then everything referenced above, be prepared for Spoilers.

I kind of think the Purest Eucatastorphe in not just Anime but all of Fiction period, including Tolkien’s own examples, is the ending of the Makai Tree Arc (once known as the Doom Tree Series in English) of Sailor Moon R.

Some may argue every Season of Sailor Moon ends in one as well as Ikuhara’s movie, and that may be true.  But here more than anywhere else is where Sailor Moon embodies what a Eucatastrophe should be, and finally fully gives birth to what the Magical Girl Warrior Sub-Genre will become.  Because a good deal of the other Anime Eucatastrophes I recommend are also from Mahou Shoujo shows.

Like the ending of episode 9 of Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz!, a scene that makes me Cry, it so perfectly embodies both my understanding of The Gospel and the Magical Girl Genre.

When I mentioned in one of those Facebook groups working on a project about Eucatastrophe in Anime someone else brought up the ending of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  And yeah I do feel that also fits, given what I’ve learned following Clearandsweet’s videos on Madoka and what I talked about long ago regarding Kyoko Sakura.

But I want to go back to the Doom Tree Saga.  Certain Sailor Moon Podcasts hosted by western Comic Book writers have mostly not enjoyed the ending of this arc in their recent rewatches in spite of their Nostalgia for it.  And I think the problems that prevent conventional writers from doing Eucatastorphes are exactly what’s keeping them from appreciating this beautiful ending.  Western Superheroes don’t lend themselves to Eucatastrophe, even Endgame didn’t have the guts to do one.  

Another Spoiler Warning

The day is not saved by Usagi defeating anyone, the day is saved by the villains finally learning to truly Love each other, but it does happen because of Usagi, because her incredible capacity to Love is what inspires them to finally figure out what Love is.

Let’s go beyond Mahou Shoujo now.  Another Anime example suggested to me by others on Facebook was Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind.  That is still my favorite Miyazaki film.

Kunihiko Ikuhara’s shows I would be less hesitant to count if their endings were more unambiguously happy.  Tolkien’s own Happy Endings do tend to have some Bitter Sweet quality to them however.

I still haven’t gotten to see Spring Song yet.  I’ve heard things about what happens in Heaven’s Feel that have me hoping we’ll get one here.  The True Magics are probably either Deus Ex Machinas or Eucatastrophes, it all depends on execution really. 

I think you could also possibly argue for the ending of Clannad: After Story qualifying.

I feel like some of the Pokémon movies have them, but I’m hesitant to definitively single out any of them right now.

I also think A Certain Magical Index: The Miracle of The Endymion might count.

Actually the Daihesei Festival arc of A Cretan Magical Index II (episodes 8-13, or 32-37 of the series as a whole) definitely counts.

I kind of get this feeling from the final episode of Accel World.  Technically that’s almost more a Heist Movie twist making it more like what I above defined an Eucatastrophe as not being.  But it does compliment the themes and morals of the show, and I just love how the seeming Damsel in Distress of the Arc actually had a plan all along.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya’s ending is really right on the line between how I define a Eucatastrophe and a Deus Ex Machina and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Very recently I considered counting the last episode of Warlords of Sigrdrifa, but I also think that may be stretching it.  I really don’t want to look like I’m just giving this label to every ending I like.  In those Facebook groups some people suggested that Star Wars (presumably A New Hope) counts and I kind of had to laugh at that one.

The fact that it's kind of ultimately an emotional reaction is perhaps what really makes it hard to define.  In a weird way maybe some people think the Threesome Ending of the School Days Visual Novel works as a Eucatastrophe for the players who wanted that ending.

I may edit this post to add additional examples in the future.  I have a sense that I may regret not finishing Princess Tutu before publishing this.

Update: On April 1st I watched Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms and there was a moment near it's ending that I feel kind of maybe fits.

January 2022 Update: The first Detective Conan movie, The Time Bombed Skyscraper has an ending that perhaps counts.

September 2022 Update: Actually a better Detective Conan/Case Closed Eucatastrophe is probably the one in episode 345.

December 2022 Update: On my fourth viewing of Robotics;Notes it occurred to me that the Parrot saving Airi in episode 20 could qualify.

April 2023 Update: I have two to add.

First is that Re;Creators may very well count, and perhaps also embodies why the desire of us Tolkien nerds to distinguish Eucatastrpohe from a Deus Ex Machina is somewhat futile.  Nothing in the modern world actually matches 100% of Aristotle's definition of a Deus Ex Machina, we literally don't write Plays like they did in Ancient Athens anymore, so there is always some flimsy attempt to justify a resolution that appears to come out of nowhere.  What makes it one we'd call a Eucatastrophe or not is simply in how it's executed, or more truthfully whether we happen to like it or not.

Second is that, most shockingly I'm thinking of counting a Hentai called Triangle Blue, but I need to qualify some things.

Triangle Blue like a lot of Hentai of it's genre is a technically a Visual Novel adaptation, meaning it's source material has different timelines that could play out, which we commonly call Routes.  Most of the Triangle Blue two part OVA is a very condensed adaptation of one specific route, but then after reaching that story's end crams on some elements from other routes.

So if you stop episode 2 at about 22:14 (exactly when could depend on the upload), that's the end of the storyline it had been adapting and what's left is Anime Original Filler.  And in that story I'm willing to consider when Akane's Sister slaps her a Eucatastrophe.

Update April 2025: I've just rewatched Char's Counterattack and it's ending I think counts.

Update May 2025: The 9th Cream Lemon OVA "Happening Summer" has a Eucatastrophe, unlike the prior Hentai example I included this one has no qualifying statement.