== Checking in on the Winter 2018 anime season 'midway' through

I know, calling this 'midway' is a bit rich, [[even for me
Fall2017Midway]]. But I haven't seen the end of any of the shows
I'm watching, so I want to write down some things before I start
changing that, as an update on [[my earlier impressions of this season
Winter2018Brief]].

Smash hit of the season:

* *Laid-Back Camp*: This has stayed ridiculously engaging all the way
  through, with hardly a misstep. As I expected I'm much more interested
  in Rin's solo camping sections, with their focus on the mechanics and
  the beauty of the experience, than on the Outclub's 'gang of friends'
  segments. But even the latter are a solid experience (in moderation),
  and the whole show is my clear winner this season.

Generally excellent:

* *March comes in like a Lion*: After stalling on this for quite a while,
  I motivated myself into watching it and it's still as solid and as good
  as always.

Popcorn with flashes of something more:

* *Darling in the FranXX*: It's not that the show is bad; it's just
  that it's disappointing on multiple levels. But every
  so often it pulls off a surprise or [[a very good episode
  https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/972626185434918913]], and outside
  of that it's good popcorn entertainment if you can hold your nose
  about certain aspects.

Surprisingly good, I think:

* *The Ancient Magus' Bride* changed my opinion of it with the last
  episode, which is the first episode that I hadn't read the manga
  version of first. It came across as a quite good episode, so I'm
  swinging around to the idea that I've been somewhat too hard on
  the show because it generally hasn't been living up to the manga.

Either on the edge of being dropped or dropped:

* *Violet Evergarden* (#10): The show is beautiful (and I'm not just
  talking about the art), and when I watch an episode it mostly pulls me
  in to the moment. But then the episode ends and I immediately wind up
  pulling back from it. I don't think I feel intrinsically engaged with
  any of the characters; the show is so well put together that it makes
  me care anyway when I'm watching, but outside of that I feel distant
  from it, with very little urge to watch it. Between episodes, watching
  feels more like an obligation than anything else.

  I may finish up the show just because, but ultimately if you told me
  that I couldn't watch any more than I already have, I wouldn't feel
  at all annoyed.

Dropped:

* *Katana Maidens - Toji no Miko* (#9): I got tired of the show's generally
  slow pacing and gave up on it after a while. I like the characters and
  when things happened it was okay, but I couldn't take the stop/start
  plot development any more. Even [[Evirus calls it 'okay'
  https://karmaburn.com/?p=7911]].

  (I could say that I started picking nits in things, but when I start
  doing that it's because I'm growing disenchanted with the show.)

In Netflix mass dropped shows, I watched *B - The Beginning* and have
been working through *A.I.C.O. - Incarnation*, which somehow feels like
a show from a decade ago (it's not anywhere near as compulsive a watch
as *B* was).

In general this has been a quiet, laid-back season for me. There's
nothing I'm watching that really inspires passion, for all that
*Laid-Back Camp* is a great charmer.