== Brief impressions of the Spring 2018 anime season so far

[[As before Winter2018Brief]], it's time for my relatively early views
of how this season has shaken out so far, following up on [[my first
episode reactions Spring2018FirstEpisodes]]. At this point I've seen
anywhere from three to five episodes of the shows I'm following (or two
for one special case), and that gap says a lot about how I seem to be
feeling this season. There are a couple of shows that I enthusiastically
follow, and then a big gap to a bunch of things that I'm watching
without much drive. As a result, this season I'm using a different
rating breakdown than before.

Eagerly watching immediately:

* *Sword Art Online Alternative - Gun Gale Online*: If you'd told me
  before the start of the season that a SAO show would be one of the
  top shows I look forward to every week, I wouldn't have believed
  you. But *GGO* is almost nothing like regular SAO (for example, it's
  completely Kirito-free), and the result has been pretty sharp and
  definitely enjoyable. We're not getting deep or complex storytelling,
  but it's a fun ride and the show pulls off it straightforward story
  well.

  (In other words this is pretty much a popcorn show, but it's a great
  popcorn show so far.)

* *Hisone and Masotan*: Unsurprisingly, the show didn't manage to stay
  quite as manic and stunning as the first episode, but what we've got
  since then is still quite good (although I wish the show would stomp
  on [[one particular thing
  https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/993000516367081472]]). I'm not
  sure we need an overall plot, since what I'm really here for is all
  of the characters interacting with each other, but I suppose it gives
  the show an excuse for that to happen.

Backlogged on:

* *Golden Kamuy*: This has all the ingredients to be a show that clicks
  with me but it hasn't so far. It's fun to watch, though, and genuinely
  tense and compelling on a moment to moment basis when it wants to be
  (as well as periodically funny). I just can't bring myself to care
  about all the maneuverings and goings on yet.

* *Megalo Box*: This has done various things that I really like and
  it can be quite good on a moment to moment basis, but right now I'm
  an episode or two behind so it clearly hasn't grabbed and compelled
  me. I wish the artwork didn't look as blurred as it does.

* *Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory*: It's been so long since the
  last *Full Metal Panic!* show that my feelings for these characters
  have grown distant, and unfortunately the show did basically nothing to
  rekindle them before throwing us into the press of various events. The
  result is something that feels not so much unnecessary as if its time
  has passed, and that makes me sort of sad. I feel that I should love
  this, but I don't.

* *My Hero Academia*: I think I may be burning out on this long-running
  shonen show. Everyone says that the latest episodes are really great,
  and maybe they will be once I watch them, but at the moment (when I'm
  not watching) my reaction is muted. I've seen a lot of these characters
  already and I know that nothing big is going to happen, because that's
  the nature of long-running shonen works.

  (Possibly I'm wrong about the 'nothing big', because *MHA* has had
  character development for many characters, but still.)

I'm also backlogged on *Darling in the FranXX*, which continues to be
very itself for both good and bad.

Suspended and pretty much dropped:

* *Hinamatsuri* (#3): It's reasonably charming and funny but it's not
  *Alice & Zoroku*, and in practice I haven't been able to summon enough
  enthusiasm to watch more.

* *GeGeGe no Kitaro* (#2): Sadly, that it's a kids show is a bit too
  apparent for me to get pulled into this. It's nice and I'm sure it's
  quite watchable, but apparently 'quite watchable' is not what I'm
  looking for this season.

Dropped:

* *Lupin III Part V* (#2): I think that *The Woman Called Mine Fujiko* has
  basically spoiled me for most Lupin TV series. This was perfectly okay
  but it didn't leave me with any burning desire to see the next episode.

* *Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These* (#2): I would have to
  call this 'ponderous'. If you're already sold on the franchise and the
  characters, I imagine that this is a good version of it, but I'm not
  and I've read enough science fiction that does this sort of stuff
  better (or at least in ways that keep me reading it).

I'm really enjoying my two anticipated and watched as soon as I
can shows, and otherwise I'm hoping that something will re-ignite my
interest and enthusiasm about the other shows, even to the extent that I
stop putting off watching them. Perhaps my gut is speaking to me here,
but only watching two shows this season would be a really big change
(and I do want to see where *Darling in the FranXX* goes, even if it
winds up being a trainwreck).