== Checking in on the Spring 2017 anime season 'midway' through

It's time once again for a 'midway' update on [[my earlier impressions
of this season Spring2017Brief]]. This update has been delayed partly
because I've gotten lazy and partly because I've been a little bit
reluctant to actually admit something about what I'm watching ([[this
happened last season too Winter2017Midway]]).

Excellent:

* *Eccentric Family* second season: This is perhaps not quite as
  exciting as the first season was, but that's because we've seen
  the first season so there are fewer surprises and revelations.
  What we've gotten is still really great, with character developments
  substituted for revelations.

  (I have some views about this. The short form version is that in the
  first season, characters did not grow too much; instead they just got
  revealed. In the second season, several characters are being forced
  to move out of their stasis and actually change.)

Very good:

* *WorldEnd*: This has continued to be as solidly good as it started
  out as. The characters are appealing, the twists are interesting and
  surprising, and it's become one of the rare shows that manage to sell
  me on the romance involved ([[and even the process of it happening
  https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/874820523187896321]]).

* *Alice & Zoroku*: After its initial burst of action in the first arc,
  the show has focused its energy on the characters and the result has
  been great. It's warm and charming and very effective at developing
  Sana as a real, understandable person who comes across as being her
  (young and confused) age.

Good:

* *My Hero Academia*: There are inherent limits to what a shonen show
  can and will do in a 'sports tournament' setting, and the whole thing
  can get a bit repetitive with match after match. However, on the good
  side, *MHA* has finally mastered the art of not making things feel
  slow. I have no idea if it actually is slow compared to the manga, but
  the important thing is that *MHA* is not dragging in the way it was in
  the first season, where the padding was blatantly obvious. The result
  is generally a pleasure to watch.

Okay and sort of on the edge:

* *Re:Creators*: The show was doing pretty well until it gave a lot
  of focus to Magane (and <spoiler> happened). Magane stinks up the
  joint when she's on screen, partly because [[she's not actually a real
  character https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/871522556934840321]];
  she's a cackling plot convenience. [[I said some things on this on
  Twitter https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/871219247682383872]],
  but the bit I didn't mention there is that all of the good fiction
  characters in *Re:Creators* have clearly grown and changed due to
  their time in the real world. Magane has not been affected at all.

  Despite my disgruntlement over Magane and some of the general
  direction of the show, it has been just good enough overall lately to
  keep me watching for the moment. However, it is at least close to the
  edge and I won't be terribly surprised if it manages to push me away
  before it finishes.

Stalled and basically dropped:

* *Rage of Bahamut - Virgin Soul* (as of episode 6): I feel sad about
  more or less completely losing my enthusiasm for this (the original was
  a pretty good show, after all), and haven't really wanted to officially
  admit it. Nina is a pretty great character and Rita is always fun, but
  the show completely failed to interest me in all of the other characters
  and it insisted on spending plenty of screen time on them and on all
  of their plot twists. I'm especially uninterested in Kaisar and his
  angst (Rita had the right idea when she threw him into the canal);
  he was a pretty much always a wet blanket whenever he appeared.

  (In the original, Kaisar was mostly the straight man to Favaro's
  comedian, and in *Virgin Soul* Kaisar alone has worked about as well
  as you'd expect a straight man all on his own to work.)

As with last season ([[cf Winter2017Midway]]), I feel perfectly happy
with how few shows I'm watching. Four shows that I'm solidly enjoying
is fine, and I have no particular urge to watch more.

(Anyways, it's biking season so [[I have other things going on
https://ridewithgps.com/users/593605]].)