I know, in my fall brief impressions I said that I probably wouldn't do a 'midway' post. I changed my mind because there are a couple of things I want to note before the shows end and my views change again.

Excellent:

• SSSS.Gridman: This show is amazing, and it's also reached the point where the giant robots and kaiju fights are essential drivers for the compelling character drama. It also continues to sneak in straight faced jokes and absurd situations that are both funny and illustrative of the strange setting.

Good:

• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: I caught up on this and I'm enjoying it as straight entertainment, which is pretty much what I was hoping for. This is not deep drama, but among other things it's a fundamentally pleasant show. It could easily have been about war and fighting, but instead it is ultimately about building up a community.

• Thunderbolt Fantasy S2: I'll now say the thing that I didn't really say in my brief impressions, which this is not as good as the first season. It's picked up lately, but it still lacks a vital, compelling spark that the first season had. Still, I was very pleasantly surprised by one character in the latest episode.

  (Part of my dissatisfaction with this season is that the Mistress of Cruelty was a punching bag from the start. There were shades of Gen Urobuchi's treatment of her in the first season as well, but it had other characters to make up for it.)

SSSS Gridman is amazing and the other two are perfectly enjoyable, so I'm currently considering this a perfectly good season. That I got back on the wagon of watching and enjoying Slime is nice, even if Thunderbolt Fantasy S2 is a little bit of a letdown. Still, I can hope for a strong finish to the show; it definitely still has potential and room for twists.