Kyoani did it again! That was vibrant and fluid animation. The use of thick, non-uniform line art combined with saturated, uniform color really set City apart from other currently running anime. The simpler color and line art made it much easier to animate big and expressive movement.

They also go and beyond in animating all the visual and sound effects. It made everything more coherent.

Definitely the best animated anime I've watched in recent years.

Ouch, that was a rough first episode, even as someone who've read the manga before. The contrast between Takopi's cute design with the bleak, rough style of everything else really captures the contrast between Takopi's innocent and the much more bleak reality of both Shizuka and Marina.

They also drew Shizuka's house with a messy background to reflect how messy the reality is. Shizuka's depression isn't as simple as being bullied, her home was a wreck because of her mother is allegedly having an affair with Marina's dad. There's also a glimpse on Marina's side also having a broken home because of it.

This is a wonderful adaptation, with not only a great animation but also great cinematography. I like how they depict the bullying with Marina and Shizuka with that split view. I also like how they show Takopi's first-hand experience with bullying and how scary it looked at the point of view of the victim. There's also this beautiful sequence of Takopi hesitated on helping Shizuka facing Marina.

Oh boy, I'm not ready experiencing this the second time

Bro, where's the continuation

If you're okay with Movies:

• Liz and the Blue Bird: (technically part of Hibike Euphonium but works as a stand-alone) A masterpiece film by Yamada Naoko, about a timid girl's struggle with her relationship
• The Colors Within: Another Yamada Naoko film about finding your own color, super low stake drama, more on feels good anime
• Silent Voice: Yet another Yamada Naoko film about forgiving yourself and finding strength through each other (CW: suicide attempt)
• Look Back: The love and struggle for doing art
• Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Beginning of a new Era: (Just finished this one) An anthropomorphized race horse's struggle to rise to the top, beautiful animation and drama

As for series:

• Hibike Euphonium: band drama
• Hyouka: a highschool detective solving mundane every day life through clever deduction, more character driven story
• Keep Your Hands off Eizouken: about making animation (not a real life representative, lean on the whimsical and creative aspect of animation)

which of the other Umamusume anime is similar to Cinderella Gray? Would enough context be given to watch a season as a standalone series instead of starting from season 1?

You could try the movie Uma Musume: Road to the Top and Uma Musume: Begining of a New Era. Haven't watch either, but I've hear a lot of praise for them

Finally, they animated the super-high-speed Kanshi suffering. I've been waiting to see it animated since they teased it in the opening. God speed, Kanshi, this is only the start of your many more suffering 🙏.

What?! They can't just leave us like that. They shouldn't put a cliffhanger on my comfort anime T^T. Stay safe Yachiyo, I hope Ponko and the rest will be able to rescue her

I'm not ready when Yachiyo will learn about humanity's fate. They keep brewing just like this episode.

This was a great premiere. The animation was great, and the joke was stupid as the manga. Can't wait to see all the shenanigans Nico will bring with her magic. The visual on the OP is amazing, it was filled with many references for future events with a really smooth and fast-paced animation. I don't really vibe with the song, might need to listen to it a couple of times to vibe with it. The soundtrack during the anime was pretty rough, felt a little too generic. Overall, a great start for the anime.

Any anime with Kensuke Ushio as the composer, most notably Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird with prepared piano. He also composed the soundtrack for Dandadan and Devil May Cry

No, Ave Mujica was great. You can criticize its direction, but please don't call it AI works because there are real people involved behind it, who took a lot of care in composing, screen write, and animate it. They did a great job experimenting the format, incorporating horror element on a band girl anime. Especially, when there are worse anime out there made by people who know nothing about animation, e.g. Ex-arm.

The animation in half the scenes is like 12 FPS (because they couldn't be bothered to wait for a full render)

That's like the standard fps for an anime. Anime was animated in what they called on-2 (a picture holds for 2 frame in 24 fps), so any other anime also animated in 12 fps. They left it as stylistic choice, and I didn't find the lower frame making the anime feels stiff or awkward

The characters lips move like goldfish eating flakes whenever they speak/sing.

That's also the standard in anime, they only have mouth animated with 2-3 frame open and closing. Ave Mujica did a great job at making it emotive despite that limitations

They appear to have used stock mocap for the characters playing instruments and couldn't be bothered to match up their movements to the music.

They actually took their VA performance's motion capture with actual experience playing their instrument. Like any Bang Dream anime, Ave Mujica has a real band counterpart and you can see their live band performance on bandori channel. I think they did a great job to emote the performance and still keep it in sync.

So, please stop comparing it with AI

What I will probably watch next season:

• Witch Watch: I've read the manga, it was written by the same author as sket dance, so its humor sit just right with me.
• Hibi was Sugiredo Meshi Umashi: Another P.A. Works original anime featuring working women like shirobako, sakura quest, and aquatope. I always enjoy their comfy SOL with some light drama.
• GQuuuuuuX: I've never watched Gundam before, but the visual and character design pique my interest. I'll give it an episode or two before deciding if it's worth the time.

I'll definitely miss Ave Mujica, there isn't seem to be another anime that can break me every week.